Syria blames armed groups for Hama massacre

Syria's state TV said early Thursday that armed groups committed a massacre and killed nine people in a village in the central Hama province on Wednesday.

Citing an unnamed source, the TV denied as "categorically baseless" media reports claiming that the government troops' shelling killed more than 80 people in the village.

Government troops intervened and clashed with the gunmen at the request of local residents, it added.

Women and children were among the killed in the Qubair village, said the TV, adding that many of the gunmen were killed in the clashes along with two government soldiers.

The broadcaster said that the massacre was designed to tarnish and frame the Syrian administration a night before a scheduled meeting of the UN Security Council.

On the contrary, the activists' network Local Coordination Committees said 129 people were killed in several Syrian cities Wednesday, adding that 86 of whom were killed in Hama by the heavy shelling of government troops.

The figures were impossible of being independently checked.

The massacre is the second within one week to rattle Syria. Last week, a massacre occurred in the central village of Houla in Homs province, claiming the lives of more than 100 people. The government and the opposition have been trading barbs over the carnage.

The UN said government troops were believed to be responsible for part of the killings there, but Syria categorically denied involvement and blamed armed groups and extremist acting out a foreign conspiracy.

Meanwhile, heavy clashes have renewed in the mountainous area of Hafeh at the outskirts of the coastal city Latakia after midnight Wednesday between the government troops and armed rebels, claiming the lives of eight army men, the Russia Today news website said.

It said Hafeh is close to the Turkish borders, making it easy for armed rebels to make inroads and smuggle in weapons.

The rebels were responding in heavy machineguns, said the report, adding that several neighborhoods of the village had become under the rebels' control.

The UN observer stationing in the area could not make it to the troubled area due to the ferocious clashes, according the report.

Also after midnight Wednesday, sounds of gunshots and small explosions were heard in several neighborhood of the capital as armed groups opted for overnight clashes to make easy escapes in case of clashing with government troops.