Syrian activists said late Thursday that regime forces had committed a new massacre in the central province of Hama, killing more than 200 people in shelling and other attacks, dpa reported.
"Children, women and elderly were executed in Teraymissha in the outskirts of the city of Hama," said Omar Idlib, spokesman of the opposition Local Coordination Committees, which document violence across Syria.
According to activists, more than 200 people were killed when the Teraymissha area came under heavy shelling by government forces. Villagers who tried to escape the shelling through the fields were executed by government forces surrounding the area.
Riad al-Assad, head of the opposition Free Syrian Army, mainly made of army defectors, called for a general strike Friday across Syria to denounce "the ugly crime."