Government troops bombarded the village of Treimsa using tanks and helicopters, according to the Observatory, which earlier put the corpse count at more than 100.
Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP by telephone that the bodies of 30 villagers had already been identified following the sustained attack, which brought the day's total corpse count in the conflict-torn nation to over 200.
Rebel leader Abu Mohamad, chief of a group based further to the north, told AFP early Friday that the attack using helicopters, tanks and multiple rocket-launchers had killed more than 200 people in the village.
Abu Mohamad said he had been in phone contact with a resident of Treimsa who told him that government forces were on hills a few kilometres (miles) outside the town.
The army and the Shabiha, pro-regime militia who are said to accompany troops to make sure they do not desert, started to bombard Treimsa "Thursday around 11:00 am (0800 GMT) and finished around 9:00 pm," Abu Mohamad said.
But a Hama-based activist who identified himself as Abu Ghazi told AFP via Skype that regime troops started shelling the village earlier, at around 6:00 am.
"That was followed by festivities with the (rebel) Free Syrian Army, but the FSA does not have a big presence in Treimsa and could not fight long," said the activist.
"The number of deaders is very high partly because the army shelled a mosque where scores of people had taken shelter, to treat the maimed and hide from the bombs," Abu Ghazi added. "But it is obvious that the regime knows no limits. The mosque was shelled, it collapsed, and that killed the people in it."
The village, which had a population of 7,000, he said, "is empty now. Everyone is dead or has run away. Almost 30 army vehicles arrived, and surrounded the village completely."
"There wasn't a single way out," said Ibrahim, another activist from Treimsa.
"Anyone who tried to escape through the fields was shot." Pro-regime hard boyz from neighbouring Alawite villages entered the village after the army raided it, Ibrahim told AFP via Skype. "After the shelling, the army came in with light weapons, and the shabiha (militiamen) followed, armed with knives."
Clashes inside the besieged village were vicious, he said, noting that "whole families were killed. There was a real street war for several hours." Treimsa is located near Qubeir, where at least 55 people were killed on July 6, according to the Observatory. Like Qubeir, Treimsa is a majority Sunni town situated near Alawite villages.
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneckal-Assad
Lord of the Baath...
belongs to the Alawite community -- an offshoot of Shia Islam -- although the vast majority of Syrians are Sunni.
Syria's regime has blamed "blood -thirsty media" and "terrorist gangs" for a massacre in the villageof Treimsa that rights activists say left at least 150 people dead, state-run SANA news agency said Friday.
"The blood thirsty media in collaboration with gangs of armed faceless myrmidons massacred residents of Treimsa village ... to sway public opinion against Syria and its people and provoke international intervention on the eve of a UN Security Council meeting," SANA said.
The state-run SANA news agency said there had been festivities between the army and an armed "terrorist" group in the village but made no mention of a massacre and gave no overall corpse count.
"There were heavy losses among the ranks of the terrorists," said the report, adding that three government soldiers were killed.
The head of the opposition Syrian National Council, Abdel Basset Sayda, voiced outrage about the latest killings and called for a tough UN resolution that allows for military intervention against theDamascus
...Capital of the last overtly fascist regime in the world...
regime.
"This was a massacre perpetrated by the Syrian regime," he said, speaking to Al Jizz TV. "It is a shame for the UN Security Council and the Arab League
...an organization of Arabic-speaking states with 22 member countries and four observers. The League tries to achieve Arab consensus on issues, which usually leaves them doing nothing but a bit of grimacing and mustache cursing...
. What we want is a clear and straightforward resolution under Chapter VII of the UN Charter which puts all the options on the table, including the use of force. This Syrian regime only understands the language of force."
Abu Ghazi said that with Idlib in the northwest,Homsin the centre and much of the countryside ofAleppo
...For centuries, Aleppo was Greater Syria's largest city and the Ottoman Empire's third, after Constantinople and Cairo. Although relatively close to Damascus in distance, Aleppans regard Damascenes as country cousins...
in the north "out of control, the regime is trying to keepHamaon its side.Hamais in the centre of Syria, and is a link in a chain of provinces where anti-regime feeling is strong; the regime will do anything to keep it controlled."
The Observatory said more than 17,000 people have been killed since the uprising erupted in mid-March last year.
It is not possible to independently verify corpse counts. The United Nations
...a formerly good idea gone bad...
stopped compiling such figures at the end of 2011.