Opposition group: Pro-Assad forces killed scores in coastal town

Forces loyal to Syria's President Bashar al-Assad killed Saturday at least 126 people including women and children in the Ras al-Nabeh neighborhood of the Mediterranean coastal city of Baniyas, opposition group Local Coordination Committees or LLC said. LLC described the attacks as "massacre", adding that victims were murdered "execution style" and that some houses in the neighborhood were "filled with bodies" as hundreds of Syrians fled to areas near Homs. The London-based Syrian Network for Human Rights and the Syrian General Revolutionary Council confirmed the killings, saying the death toll could rise. More than 70,000 people have been killed since fighting between forces of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and rebels broke out in March 2011.