Syria: At least 78 killed in Hama

Pro-government police and security forces have killed at least 78 people, including children, in central Syria's Hama province, activists said on Wednesday.

Some of those killed in the village of Mazarat ak-Kaber were stabbed to death, and at least 12 bodies were burned, said activists who claim that at least 40 women and children were among the victims, Reuters reports.

The new mass killings come just two weeks after a massacre in the Syrian city of Houla, where government forces and police killed 108 people, almost half of whom were children.

Both massacres occurred under the jurisdiction of UN observers in Syria, a 300-strong mission sent to the country to oversee a ceasefire brokered by UN special envoy Kofi Annan.

Neither the government forces nor the rebels, who announced last week that they were breaking it because of the latest killings of civilians, did not adhere to the truce.

The Syrian government denied involvement

The Syrian government has denied that it carried out the massacre in the Hama area.

"What some media reported in the Hama area is untrue," the government announced.

"The terrorist group committed a crime in the Hama area in which there were nine victims. Media reports contribute to the shedding of Syrian blood," the statement said.