Annan ‘Appalled' by Massacre, Mood Says Monitors to Visit Site ‘if Ceasefire’

U.N. observers in Syria are ready to go to the central village of Treimsa, where 150 people were reported massacred, if a ceasefire is in place, mission chief Major General Robert Mood said on Friday.

"UNSMIS stands ready to go in and seek verification of the facts, if and when there is a credible ceasefire," Mood, the head of the U.N. Supervision Mission in Syria, told a news conference in Damascus.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported pro-government forces killed at least 150 people in Treimsa on Thursday. The regime blamed "bloodthirsty media" and "terrorist gangs" for the massacre.

"From our presence in the Hama province we can verify continuous fighting yesterday in the area of Treimseh. This involved mechanized units, indirect fire as well as helicopters," said Mood.

For his part, peace envoy Kofi Annan said on Friday he was "shocked and appalled" at the massacre reports.

"I condemn these atrocities in the strongest possible terms," he said in a statement. "I am shocked and appalled by news coming out of the village of Treimsa, near Hama, of intense fighting, significant casualties, and the confirmed use of heavy weaponry such as artillery, tanks and helicopters," said Annan.

A 300-strong U.N. mission was progressively deployed in Syria to monitor an April 12 truce that was never respected. UNSMIS suspended its operations in mid-June because of the violence, but the team has remained in Syria.

Reports of the Treimsa massacre came after U.N. Security Council ambassadors held their first talks on rival Russian and Western draft resolutions on Syria, with Moscow spurning calls for sanctions against President Bashar Assad's regime.