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.

Nabil El Araby condemned the Houla massacre  blamed on Assad’s regime according to a letter leaked to media on Friday.

The Houla Massacre which the UN says has resulted in 108 dead people including 49 children has triggered widespread criticism and highlighted the failure of a UN backed ceasefire.

Meanwhile, the UN  Human Rights Council after a Special Session in Geneva on Friday afternoon, focused on the deteriorating human rights situation in Syria and the killings in Houla, it adopted a resolution – with 41 votes in favour, three against (Cuba, China, Russia) and two abstentions – condemning in the strongest terms the use of force against civilians and  has called for “a special inquiry” into the massacre in the Syrian village of Houla last weekend.

The meeting is the Council’s fourth special session on Syria since the crisis in the Middle Eastern country began some 15 months ago. The UN estimates that more than 9,000 people, mostly civilians, have been killed in Syria and tens of thousands displaced since the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad began.

The resolution was put forward by Qatar, Turkey and the US amid international outrage at the killing of 108 people, nearly half of them children, in Houla a week ago, Al Jazeera writes.

The 193-nation UN General Assembly is preparing to meet next Thursday to discuss the escalating crisis in Syria and the Houla massacre.

Syria’s delegation at the Human Rights Council has blamed “terrorists- armed gangs” of carrying out the killings It said its own investigation was under way.

The last developments came as Aleppo, Syria’s second city, saw on Friday its largest protests since the country’s 15-month uprising as the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights documented 38 dead people yesterday.