Dozens of Syrians reported killed by troops in Hama

Activists say troops have shelled several neighborhoods in a central Syrian city known as a rebel stronghold. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and the Local Coordination Committees said the bombardment of Hama lasted until the early hours of Monday.

The LCC said 24 were killed while the Observatory put the death toll at 25, including eight children and five women.

Reuters reported at least 30 killed, while acknowledging that the reports could not be independently verified.  Israel Radio placed the number at over 50.

Amateur video showed a makeshift hospital were several people lay on the floor either dead or wounded.

The city witnessed clashes Sunday between troops and rebels.

In 1982, President Bashar Assad’s father and predecessor, Hafez, ordered the military to quell a rebellion by the Muslim Brotherhood movement in Hama in an assault that killed between 10,000 and 25,000 people.

On Sunday, Syria strongly denied allegations that its forces killed scores of people — including women and children — in one of the deadliest days of the country’s uprising, but the U.N. Security Council after an emergency session condemned government forces for shelling residential areas.

The killing of more than 100 people in the west-central area of Houla on Friday brought widespread international criticism of the regime of President Bashar Assad, although differences emerged from world powers over whether his forces were exclusively to blame.