Troops kill at least 50 people in central Syria, activists say

BEIRUT???President Bashar Assad's forces killed at least 50?civilians, including 13 children, in central Syria on Friday, activists said, in one of the highest death tolls in one specific area since an internationally brokered cease-fire went into effect last month.

Syrian troops using tanks, mortars and heavy machine guns pounded the area of Houla, a region made up of several towns and villages in the province of Homs, said the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and the Local Coordination Committees activist groups.

Both groups said at least 50?people were killed. The Observatory, which has a network of activists across the country, said the dead included 13 children. It added that about 100?people were wounded.

An amateur video posted online by activists showed more than a dozen bodies lined up inside a room.

"Houla was subjected to a massacre," a man could be heard saying inside the room.

The Observatory said in one incident in Houla, a family of six was killed when their home received a direct hit.

Homs has been among the hardest-hit provinces in a government crackdown since the uprising against Assad's regime began in March last year. The U.N. said several weeks ago that 9,000 people have been killed in Syria in the past 15 months. Hundreds more have died since.

Attacks have persisted despite the deployment of more than 250 U.N. observers who have fanned out across Syria to monitor a cease-fire brokered by international envoy Kofi Annan.

Despite the daily violations, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon said Thursday that there was no "plan B" for the Annan initiative.

The northern city of Aleppo, a major economic hub, has remained largely supportive of Assad throughout the uprising, but anti-regime sentiment has been on the rise in recent weeks.

On Friday, Syrian forces fired tear gas and live ammunition to disperse thousands of protesters in Aleppo calling for Assad's ouster, killing five people, activists said.

Aleppo-based activist Mohammad Saeed said more than 10,000 people were protesting.

"The regime is desperately trying to put down the protests in Aleppo, but all this violence will backfire," he said.

He added that security forces shot dead five people, including a 12-year-old boy, identified as Amir Barakat.

Also Friday, a group of Lebanese Shiites who were kidnapped in Syria were released in good health, three days after gunmen abducted the men as they returned from a religious pilgrimage.

The kidnappings fueled fears that Lebanon is getting drawn into the bloody conflict in neighboring Syria. Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati said the men were "in good health and on their way to Beirut."

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