Both the Syria’s Local Co-ordination Committees and the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) put the number of dead in Wednesday’s attack in al-Qubayr village at more than 86, Al Jazeera reports.

The Syrian government on Thursday refused accusations that it carried out a massacre in the country’s central Hama region where  the regime reported only nine deaths, according to state-run media.

“A terrorist group committed a heinous crime in the Hama region which claimed nine victims. The reports by the media are contributing to spilling the blood of Syrians,” the government said on state TV.

Opposition groups said the “new massacre” was carried by the pro-regime Shabiha militia armed with guns and knives after regular troops had shelled the area, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said in a statement.

“A new massacre has been committed in Reef Hama. Dozens of civilians have been killed in al Qubayr massacre after the regime shelled the areas. Reports from the area indicate that groups of pro-regime thugs -Shabiha- entered the shell-shocked area and began killing the inhabitants, including women and children,” The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

The syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR)  in a statement strongly urged the UN monitors to head directly to the affected area of Hama to investigate the new massacre. “We request that they head out today, not tomorrow. Several massacres have been committed while the UN monitoring mission was in Syria, and we demand that they show a sense of urgency and attempt to assist the Syrian people in stopping the bloodshed. If their mission is to merely watch Syrian people die during breaches of the ceasefire, rather than helping in stopping any breaches by being physically on the ground, then we do not require their help,” said SOHR.

Reports of the alleged massacre prompted the opposition Syrian National Council to issue a statement calling on fighters aligned with the anti-government Free Syrian Army to “escalate battlefield action” to ease pressure on civilians “under siege, shelling and assaults in the provinces of Hama, Latakia and Homs”, Al Jazeera reported.

Meanwhile western and Arab nations have met in Istanbul, Turkey, to discuss the crisis in Syria. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told Western and Arab nations at a meeting in Istanbul on Wednesday that a transition strategy in Syria must include President Bashar al-Assad’s full transfer of power, a senior U.S. State Department official said.

The deaths follow a two-day massacre that began on May 25 near the central town of Houla, where at least 108 people were killed, while most of them women and children who were summarily executed, according to the United Nations.