Nearly 400 killed in Syria

As many as 397 people were killed in Syria on Saturday in what could be the country’s bloodiest day since the start of the uprising 21 months ago, the opposition Local Coordination Committees (LCC) claimed on Sunday.

“By the end of Saturday the LCC managed to document 397 martyrs (including more than 20 children and 20 women),” the activist group reported on its website.

The figure includes 220 people who were “field executed in Deir Balbah” outside Homs city after the Syrian forces regained the area, the LCC said.

According to CNN, the activist group has learned about the Deir Balbah massacre from captured soldiers of the Syrian government troops.

The Syrian government did not comment on the alleged mass executions at Deir Balbah, while the Syrian state TV showed images of dead bodies and seized weapons in the city’s tunnels it claimed were being used by "terrorists”.

Western powers have insisted on President Bashar al-Assad’s departure before the formation of a new government of national unity, while Russia insists the decision be left to the “Syrian people”.