Syrian activists said on Monday President Bashar Al Assad's forces had killed at least 41 people, including eight children, in an artillery assault on the city of Hama over the past 24 hours.The report, which could not be independently verified, comes after the U.N. Security Council condemned the massacre of at least 108 civilians, many of them children, in the Syrian town of Houla on Friday.
Images from Houla of the bloodied bodies of children triggered shock and outrage around the world and underlined the failure of a six-week-old ceasefire plan aimed at stopping the violence.
Opposition sources said Syrian tanks and armoured vehicles opened fire on several neighbourhoods of Hama on Sunday after attacks by rebel Free Syrian Army fighters on roadblocks and other positions manned by Assad's forces.
The Hama Revolution Leadership Council said in a statement: "Tank shelling brought down several buildings. Their inhabitants were pulled out from the rubble." It said five women were among the dead.