BBC. Syria crisis: BBC sees evidence of Homs massacre

The BBC has seen evidence of a massacre in central Syria, in a village on the edge of the central city of Homs.

A team visiting Hawasiya was told that at least 100 people were killed and burned in their homes on Tuesday and Wednesday.

There are conflicting accounts as to who was behind the killings.

Reports of the massacre emerged on Thursday from opposition activists, but these were not possible to confirm.

Syrian army soldiers told the BBC team that all the bodies had already been taken away, but our correspondent found a scene of a vicious murder.

"Three charred bodies lay sprawled just inside one house. A trail of blood stained the cement," our correspondent Lyse Doucet reported.

"In the kitchen, where china teacups sat neatly on a shelf, more than a dozen bullet casings were scattered across a floor smeared with blood.

"In another room, two more burnt corpses were curled up next to a broken bed."

Villagers, still visibly shocked, told the BBC that at least 100 people were killed that day.

Soldiers who escorted the team to the area said hundreds of men from a militant Islamist rebel group, the Nusra Front, committed the killings.

One woman told the BBC the same.

But out of earshot of the official Syrian minders, another woman said the army was present at the time and that some soldiers even apologised for the murders, saying others had acted without orders.

That testimony matches accusations on activist websites that this was the work of pro-government militia known as Shabiha.

Homs and its surrounding area, have seen some of the worst violence of the uprising in Syria. The Sunni majority city has been heavily bombarded by Syrian forces.