Scores of Syrians Flee to Northern Lebanon after Homs Massacre

Scores of Syrians arrived on Monday in northern Lebanon, fleeing the central city of Homs following reports of women and children being massacred in the protest hub.

"We ran away after we heard of the massacre in Karm el-Zaytoun and after families from the neighborhood told us what happened there," Um Mohammed told an Agence France Presse reporter after arriving in the coastal Lebanese city of Tripoli with her husband and daughter.

"We feared we would meet the same fate as the residents of Karm el-Zaytoun."

According to the Syrian opposition and activists, the bodies of 47 women and children, some of them with their throats slit, were found at the weekend in Homs after being killed by regime forces.

Syria's Information Minister Adnan Mahmoud accused "terrorist gangs" of being behind the killings, which he said were carried out to stoke an international outcry against the Damascus regime.

The killings prompted an exodus from the city, with some 50 families fleeing to Tripoli, activists said.

Some of the refugees, like Um Mohammed and her family, said they made it to Lebanon through illegal border crossings.

Most of them are being offered shelter in Tripoli by Syrians who previously fled the unrest in their country.

Um Mohammed said residents of the Bab Sbaa neighborhood of Homs, where she lived, were terrified after hearing of the weekend killings.

"Everyone in Bab Sbaa is scared because the Syrian army has surrounded several neighborhoods and is now preparing to invade them," she said.

As she spoke, her six-month-old daughter Nadia, bundled in a pink sweater and a brown wool blanket, lay asleep on a foam mattress next to a small wood-burning stove.

A plastic bag filled with asthma medication sat nearby.

"Nadia suffers from asthma and a charity gave me the medication as soon as I arrived in Tripoli," Um Mohammed said.

"There is no medication, electricity or water in Bab Sbaa."

Her husband, standing in the corner of the room, remained silent and looked anxious and jittery as she recounted the family's flight to Lebanon.

Abu Assaad, another refugee who arrived late Sunday in Tripoli with his wife and three children, said the family fled Bab Sbaa on foot before meeting up with smugglers who helped them cross into Lebanon.

"We had to pay to get in," said the 50-year-old, refusing to provide more details.

"We were afraid we wouldn't make it and be sent back," he added, looking exhausted and disheveled in his khaki jacket and beige woolen hat.

He said he was very worried about relatives left behind.

"They might have fled also but I don't know anything about them," he said.

"People who want to get out have to contact friends to prepare an exit, otherwise, they'll be shot."

According to the Syrian Observatory for Human rights, more than 8,500 people, the majority of them civilians, have died in the brutal government crackdown against the revolt that erupted in Syria last March.

Rights groups say that some 700 people were killed and thousands wounded during a month-long blitz on Homs by regime forces who stormed the city's Baba Amr disrict, a rebel stronghold, on March 1.

Syrian civilians face a "desperate situation," U.N. human rights investigator Paulo Pinheiro said Monday, calling for urgent action while stressing that armed intervention will not end the crisis in Syria.

"The exodus continues to Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey. The desperate situation of civilians needs to be addressed as a matter of utmost urgency," the Brazilian commissioner told the U.N. Human Rights Council.