Activists says Syrian troops continue shelling Houla

Beirut: Activists say Syrian troops are shelling the central Houla area where more than 100 people were massacred last week. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and the Local Coordination Committees activist groups say Thursday’s shelling of Houla was mostly by heavy machine guns. Both groups also say a young man was killed by sniper fire in Houla, a collection of poor farming villages in central Homs province. [caption id=“attachment_327254” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“In this image made from amateur video released by the Shaam News Network and accessed Tuesday, May 29, 2012, purports to show 13 blindfolded and handcuffed bodies on the ground in Deir el-Zour, Syria. AP”]  [/caption] Survivors of the Houla massacre blamed pro-regime gunmen for at least some of the carnage that left 108 people dead, many of them children and women. The Syrian government denied its troops were behind the killings and blamed “armed terrorists.” In the wake of the massacre, the United States, Western and Asian nations expelled Syrian diplomats in protest. AP