Ammon News - AMMONNEWS - Syria's main opposition bloc put the toll at more than 100 and urged the UN Security Council to convene an emergency meeting to examine the massacre.

"More than 110 people were killed (half of whom are children) by the Syrian regime's forces", the Syrian National Council said in a statement.

"Some of the victims were hit by heavy artillery while others, entire families, were massacred," said the statement by Bassma Kodmani, the council's head of foreign relations.

Call for rallies

Videos posted online by activists showed more than a dozen bodies lined up inside a room. They included about 10 children who were covered with sheets that only showed their bloodied faces.

Amer al-Sadeq of the Syrian Revolution Co-ordinators Union blamed the killings on Assad loyalists from surrounding villages who he said "have been armed systematically by the regime since the beginning of the uprising".

He told Al Jazeera that activists were calling for demonstrations on Saturday to mourn the children killed.

The Local Co-ordination Committees activist network said government forces had shelled the town before "armed militias slaughtered entire families in cold blood".

The latest flare-up of violence came as Ban Ki-moon, the United Nations secretary-general, blamed the government for much of the "unacceptable levels of violence and abuses" occurring every day in the 14-month-long crisis in Syria.

In a report to the UN Security Council, Ban cited the government's continued use of heavy weapons, reports of shelling and "a stepped-up security crackdown by the authorities that has led to massive violations of human rights by government forces and pro-government militias".

Ban said there had only been "small progress" on implementing the six-point joint UN-Arab League plan brokered by international envoy Kofi Annan.

The UN chief called on the government to keep its pledge to immediately stop the violence, pull heavy weapons and troops out of populated areas, allow humanitarian workers to help civilians in need and end human rights abuses.

Ban also called on all elements of the opposition to stop the violence and respect human rights.

The secretary-general said 271 of 300 unarmed UN military observers authorised by the council to help end the conflict were on the ground.

Their deployment in key cities appeared to have had a "calming effect", he said.

Nonetheless, "the overall level of violence in the country remains quite high"' with daily incidents causing a large number of deaths and injuries, though at a lower scale than immediately before April 12 when a ceasefire was supposed to take effect.



* Al Jazeera and agencies