Last weekend 13 members of the same family in al-Baydah were killed, with the bodies of three brothers found with bullet wounds just outside their home and four female relatives and six children between the ages of two and 13 found dead inside the house. The killings took place shortly after pro-government forces clashed with opposition fighters close to the family’s home.

In a new ten-page briefing, Amnesty says that more than 250 civilians in the same village and the nearby city of Banias were also killed in May, with eyewitnesses describing bodies piled up in the streets in the Ras al-Naba’ district of Banias, and civilians being rounded up by pro-government forces.

Amnesty is calling for all attacks on civilians to stop, with the organisation holding the Syrian authorities directly responsible for violations committed by government-sponsored militias.

Amnesty International Middle East and North Africa Director Philip Luther said: “Pro-government forces seem to be targeting civilians in these areas with total impunity. This raises serious concerns that civilians in al-Baydah and Banias, particularly those in vicinity of opposition fighters, are being targeted as a deliberate tactic to forcibly displace as many civilians as possible in order to leave opposition fighters more exposed and without a local support base. Investigators from the United Nations must be granted immediate access to Syria in order to investigate all civilian killings since the uprising began in 2011.”

Research carried out by Amnesty into the mass killings in al-Baydah village and the city of Banias on 2 and 3 May found that pro-government forces were behind the deaths of at least 130 people in al-Baydah and 138 in Banias. According to testimony from survivors and eyewitnesses, attackers carried out house-to-house raids rounding up inhabitants. Unarmed men, women and children were lined up in the streets and shot at close range, while others were shot dead in their homes. An unspecified number of homes were also looted and set on fire.

A woman whose husband and two sons were killed in al-Baydah, described how ten men in military fatigues kicked in the door to their home. One stabbed her husband with a bayonet. She was repeatedly threatened with rape and her two sons, husband and other men were then dragged outside and shot dead in the street.

Another survivor described how he and a friend were detained as they tried to escape on the Latakia-Tartous highway. Men dressed in military uniforms dragged them to a checkpoint and threw them on the ground face down. Then they began kicking, stamping and beating them. “They beat us so hard I thought I was going to die,” the survivor said. He then told how he and his friend were doused in petrol and set alight:

“[They] brought a big two-litre-size bottle with petrol, poured it over Lou’ay and lit him on fire … within seconds as he was falling, they shot him in the head and he collapsed. There was still a little amount of petrol left in the bottle so they poured it on me and lit me up … I was on fire … I started taking off my clothes, my jacket … then I ran towards the farms … Then, they started shooting at me … I kept running and running … I don’t know how I made it.”

In the Ras al-Naba’ district of Banias eyewitnesses described seeing bodies piled up in the streets and civilians being rounded up by pro-government forces. One resident said he saw a family, including a woman and two children, crouching in a corner by a wall as the pro-government forces opened fire at them. The bodies later appeared to have been burned.

The World Food Programme (WFP) is distributing ready-to-eat food rations and high-energy biscuits to families who were forced to flee Baniyas and surrounding villages on Syria’s Mediterranean coast to Tartous city.

WFP aims to distribute supplied to more than 10,000 people – mainly women and children – in gathering points and shelters in communities such as Zamrin, Breej and Mrah, near Tartous city. Following the emergency ration, families will be given WFP’s regular food basket which includes rice, bulgur, sugar, pasta, vegetable oil and lentils.

According to the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), images of piles of bloodied and burned bodies, including of small children and babies, have been emerging – allegedly taken after Government forces and militia overran al-Baida and other parts of Banias last week.

WFP warned that ongoing classes on the main route between Tartous and the capital, Damascus, would significantly disrupt the movement of WFP cargo to the agency’s warehouse in the capital city. This poses a great risk as more than 60 per cent of all food stored in that warehouse – enough for one million people – arrived from Tartous Port through the Damascus-Homs highway, which was witnessing heavy fighting.

The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) is supplying hygiene and children’s clothing to the displaced families through the Syrian Arab Red Crescent. In a briefing to reporters in Geneva, UNICEF spokesperson Marixie Mercado said three trucks were also heading from Damascus to Tartous to distribute hygiene kits, clothing and high energy biscuits.

Ms. Mercado also drew attention an increasing number of damaged or destroyed schools in the country. According to the ministry of education, there are now over 2,960 damaged and destroyed schools out of a total of over 22,000 schools in Syria. Some 1,400 schools are being used as shelters, and 222 education staff had been killed.

She added that next week UNICEF will deliver 10 prefabricated schools to Adra in rural Damascus and one school in Damascus, the first installment of a total of 104 pre-fabricated schools provided to meet the huge demand for safe placed to learn across the country.

According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights at least 62 murdered civilians have been found in a Sunni neighbourhood of the Syrian city of Banias,  reported AFP.

“We have identified 62 citizens by their names, photos, or videos, including 14 children,” the group said, adding that the toll could rise.

The group also,  posted online a video showing the bodies of 10 people it said were killed in the district of the city Ras al Nabaa with most of them being children.

The videos and reports of the killings could not be independently verified as the Syrian government restricts access for independent media.

Banias, like Daraa saw some of the first demonstrations since the two-year conflict began in March 2011.

The region’s three main coastal cities of Banias, Latakia and Tartus and their surrounding areas which are referred to as “Alawite heartland” where analysts predict that Assad could seek protection if his regime collapses.

Meanwhile , the State Department strongly condemned the massacre in al-Baida village.

“The United States is appalled by horrific reports that more than 100 people were killed May 2 in gruesome attacks on the coastal town of al-Bayda, Syria. Regime and Shabiha forces reportedly destroyed the area with mortar fire then stormed the town and executed entire families, including women and children. We extend our deepest condolences to the families of the victims of this tragedy,” State Department said in a statement.

“We strongly condemn atrocities against the civilian population and reinforce our solidarity with the Syrian people. As the Assad regime’s violence against innocent civilians escalates, we will not lose sight of the men, women, and children whose lives are being so brutally cut short. We call on all responsible actors in Syria to speak out against the perpetration of unlawful killings against any group, regardless of faith or ethnicity. Those responsible for serious violations of international humanitarian law and serious violations and abuses of human rights law must be held accountable.”

The massacre in Ras al Nabaa took place two days after gunmen loyal to the regime  killed at least  50 Sunnis in the nearby village of al-Baida.

Meanwhile, Israeli officials have confirmed that the country’s air force carried out a strike against Syria and say it targeted a shipment of advanced missiles, Al Jazeera reported.

The officials said on Saturday the shipment was weapons bound for the Lebanese Hezbollah group.

Sectarian clashes and massacres have increased in the two-year-old uprising has been led by Syria’s Sunni Muslim majority  which has left more than 70,000 people dead.

Addressing a media briefing in Geneva, a spokesperson for the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), Marixie Mercado, reported that, according to local health officials, the ongoing violence continued to impact infant care in Syrian hospitals, particularly among newborns who were increasingly affected by a lack of available incubators.

At the General Hospital in Damascus, Syria’s capital, Mercado said that out of 21 incubators only 14 were functioning despite a list of over 60 babies waiting to use the remaining accessible machines.

“Health workers said many babies had died because there were not enough incubators,” she told the press briefing.

“Yesterday, the Ministry of Health indicated to UNICEF that 400 incubators were needed across the country,” she continued, adding that overcrowding at the General Hospital was also affecting the children’s ward where 200 patients were waiting for access to 120 beds.

Mercado warned that the stress of the fighting was especially having a damaging effect on expectant mothers. Citing health workers, she stated that mothers were delivering earlier and that many were also miscarrying while hospitals were experiencing a two-fold increase in the number of Caesarean sections when compared with the same period last year.

At least 20,000 people, mostly civilians, have died since the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad began some 20 months ago. A further 2.5 million Syrians urgently need humanitarian aid, and over 340,000 have crossed the border to Syria’s neighbouring countries, according to UN estimates.

There had been expectations that the warring parties in Syria would agree to observe a ceasefire, starting last Friday, in observance of the Muslim religious holiday of Eid al-Adha, in the hope that it would help create an environment that would allow a political process to develop. That ceasefire, however, was not respected as violence continued across the war-torn country through the holiday weekend.

Mercado told the gathered journalists that while UNICEF had provided relief items to around 60,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs), there was a shortage of school supplies, furniture and teachers for IDP children fleeing the violence.

She added that the UN agency was working to quickly bring in more supplies, including incubators and other winter gear, to cities such as Al-Raqqah and Tartous, as well as others.

Addressing the same news briefing, the spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), Rupert Colville, told reporters that a circulated video showing apparent executions would be difficult to verify immediately and required further careful scrutiny.

He noted, however, that the video appeared to show a war crime and urged all parties to respect international human rights law and international humanitarian law.

“The people committing these crimes should be under no illusion that they will escape accountability as there is a lot of accumulated evidence,” Colville added.