BEIRUT — Government troops shelled a string of villages in central Syria before pro-regime thugs swept through the area, shooting people in the streets and in their homes in attacks that killed more than 90 people, activists said Saturday.
The assault on Houla, an area northwest of the central city of Homs, is one of the bloodiest single events in Syria's 15-month-old uprising.
Amateur videos posted online showed scores of dead covered in sheets and blankets, some covered with chunks of ice to preserve then until burial.
The Syrian government blamed the massacre on "armed terrorist groups" but provided no details or death toll.
The killings strike a blow to an international peace plan brokered by envoy Kofi Annan meant to end the violence in Syria. The basis of the plan is a cease-fire between President Bashar Assad's forces and rebels seeking to topple the Syrian regime. It was supposed to start on April 12 but has never really taken hold, with pockets of daily violence.
The U.N. put the death toll weeks ago at more than 9,000. Hundreds have been killed since.