In this task, you are given a text of many news articles seperated by special token "|||||". Your task is to summarize them.
Q: Syrian activists reported a new massacre late Thursday in the central Homs province, saying regime forces killed more than 100 people in shelling and other attacks. 
  
 FILE - In this July 3, 2008 file photo, Nawaf Fares, center, governor of the Quneitra, Syria, briefs a U.N. delegation visiting the city of Quneitra in the Golan Heights to investigate Israeli practices... (Associated Press) 
  
 In this citizen journalism image provided by Shaam News Network SNN, taken on Tuesday, July 10, 2012, Syrians burry a child in Homs, Syria. (AP Photo/Shaam News Network, SNN)THE ASSOCIATED PRESS IS UNABLE... (Associated Press) 
  
 FILE - In this Sept. 16, 2008 file photo provided by the Syrian official news agency SANA, Nawaf Fares, left, is sworn in as Syria's ambassador to Iraq before Syrian President Bashar Assad, right, and... (Associated Press) 
  
 In this citizen journalism image provided by Shaam News Network SNN, taken on Wednesday, July 11, 2012, black smoke rises from buildings near a mosque from purported forces shelling in Homs, Syria. (AP... (Associated Press) 
  
 In this citizen journalism image provided by Shaam News Network SNN, taken on Wednesday, July 11, 2012, Free Syrian Army soldiers pose for a photograph in Homs, Syria. (AP Photo/Shaam News Network, SNN)THE... (Associated Press) 
  
 In this citizen journalism image provided by Shaam News Network SNN, taken on Wednesday, July 11, 2012, a Syrian boy holds a poster with Arabic that reads, "and what happens after press conferences, even... (Associated Press) 
  
 In this citizen journalism image provided by Shaam News Network SNN, taken on Wednesday, July 11, 2012, Syrian children chanting slogans and hold a poster with Arabic that reads, "patience is good, and... (Associated Press) 
  
 In this citizen journalism image provided by Shaam News Network SNN, taken on Wednesday, July 11, 2012, smoke leaps the air from purported forces shelling in Homs, Syria. (AP Photo/Shaam News Network,... (Associated Press) 
  
 There were few details on the attack, which was reported by the Local Coordination Committees activist group and the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. 
  
 The Observatory said it was aware of up to 100 killed from sources on the ground, but the group had only confirmed the names of 30 people so far. 
  
 Death tolls are nearly impossible to independently verify in Syria, where the government restricts journalists and where more than a year of violence has convulsed much of the country. 
  
 There were few details of the violence in Hama's Tremseh area. 
  
 Activists say more than 17,000 people have been killed since the uprising against President Bashar Assad began in March 2011, and he is coming under growing international pressure to stop the violence. But as the bloodshed continues, and the conflict morphs into an armed insurgency, hopes for a peaceful transition are dimming. 
  
 The latest report of violence came in the wake of the highest-level defector yet from President Bashar Assad's regime _ his ambassador to Iraq. 
  
 Defections from the Syrian regime have stirred hopes in the West Assad's inner circle will start abandoning him in greater numbers, hastening his downfall. 
  
 But the tightly protected regime has largely held together over the course of the 16-month-old uprising, driven by a mixture of fear and loyalty. 
  
 The latest official to flee, Ambassador Nawaf Fares, announced that he was joining the revolution, asserting Thursday that only force will drive Assad from power. 
  
 "There is no road map ever with Bashar Assad, because any plan, any statement that is agreed on internationally he delays on and ignores," Fares told the Al-Jazeera satellite channel. "There is no way that he can be pushed from power without force, and the Syrian people realize this." 
  
 Syria's Foreign Ministry denounced Fares, saying he should face "legal and disciplinary accountability." 
  
 In Washington, State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell hailed what he called the "first major diplomatic defection," adding: "We think this a wider sign that the regime is feeling the pressure. The pressure is up and the regime is really starting to fall apart." 
  
 Fares is the second prominent Syrian to break with the regime in less than a week. Brig. Gen. Manaf Tlass, an Assad confidant and son of a former defense minister, defected last week, but has not spoken publicly. 
  
 French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said Tlass has been in contact with the Syrian opposition. He would not comment on reports that Tlass was in Paris. 
  
 "I know that there is some closeness between the opposition and the general... Contact has been made," Fabius told journalists in Paris. 
  
 Assad's regime has suffered a steady stream of low-level army defectors, who have joined a group of dissidents known as the Free Syrian Army, now numbering in the tens of thousands. There have been several high-level defections in the past _ including a Syrian fighter pilot who flew his plane to neighboring Jordan during a training mission in June in a brazen move. 
  
 Although the defections are notable, Assad's regime has remained remarkably airtight, particularly compared with the hemorrhaging of Moammar Gadhafi's inner circle in Libya in 2011. 
  
 Within weeks of the Libyan revolt, a number of Libyan ambassadors and other high-ranking officials quit the government, and many joined the opposition leadership. The early defection of huge sections of the army in eastern Libya gave the rebel movement a safe zone where they could freely organize their political and military strategies. 
  
 Syria has seen nothing similar. Part of the reason is the loyalty of the armed forces. 
  
 Unlike the armies of Tunisia and Egypt, Syria's military has stood fiercely by the country's leader as Assad faces down an extraordinary protest movement. 
  
 Assad, and his father who ruled before him, stacked key military posts with members of their minority Alawite sect over the past 40 years, ensuring the loyalty of the armed forces by melding the fate of the army and the regime. 
  
 The army has a clear interest in protecting the regime because they fear revenge attacks and persecution should the country's Sunni majority gain the upper hand. 
  
 But besides the military's loyalty, another factor that constrains a flood of defections is fear. Open dissent is dangerous in Syria, a country that crushed any rumblings of defiance even before the popular revolt started to threaten the Assad family's 40-year dynasty. The security forces, which are the backbone of the regime and drive the culture of fear and paranoia, will protect the leadership at all costs. 
  
 Defectors fear not only for their own lives, but for those of any family members left behind. When deputy oil minister Abdo Husameddine defected in March, he said in a video statement that he fully expected government forces to "burn my home" and "persecute my family." 
  
 Already, the conflict is believed to have killed more than 17,000 people since the crisis began in March 2011, according to activists' estimates. Although the revolt began with protests, it has morphed into an armed insurgency with scores of rebel groups across the country clashing with government troops and attacking their bases and convoys. 
  
 On Thursday, Syrian forces shelled the suburbs of the capital, Damascus, to flush the rebels out from areas where they have established a foothold. Troops pounded Mezzeh and Kafr Souseh in eastern Damascus with mortars, sending residents streaming out, activists said. They also targeted the Liwan, Qadam and Daraya neighborhoods from a nearby military airport. 
  
 Explosions could be heard though much of the capital and amateur videos posted online showed huge clouds of smoke rising from the targeted areas. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported three dead in the area, among more than 45 people killed across Syria on Thursday. At least 11 were government soldiers, it said. 
  
 The reports and videos could not be independently verified. 
  
 Also Thursday, Human Rights Watch said it had found evidence the Syrian government had fired cluster bombs in an area near the central city of Hama. The New York-based group said the munitions are clearly identifiable in amateur videos posted online, and that local activists said the area has been under government bombardment for weeks. 
  
 Cluster bombs explode in the air and drop dozens of "bomblets" over a large area, but these often do not explode on impact. They remain explosive, increasing the threat of later injury to civilians. 
  
 As the conflict grinds on, U.N. officials are growing more pessimistic over prospects for a diplomatic solution to the crisis, even though Assad's main backers, Russia and China, have signed on to the idea of a transition to democracy in Syria. 
  
 Despite incremental progress, a senior U.N. official said the U.N. Security Council is deeply divided on Syria policy, with Western diplomats still uncertain whether Moscow is any closer to cutting its ties with the Syrian government or using its considerable leverage with Damascus to end the conflict on terms unfavorable to Assad. 
  
 With diplomacy near a standstill, the U.N. observer mission in Syria is serving as little more than a bridge between the United Nations and the Assad government, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss diplomatic maneuvering with media. 
  
 ___ 
  
 Associated Press writers Ben Hubbard in Beirut, Matthew Lee in Washington and John Heilprin in Geneva contributed to this report. ||||| AMMAN (Reuters) - Syrian government forces killed more than 200 people, most of them civilians, in a village in the province of Hama on Thursday, opposition activists said. 
  
 The village of Taramseh was shelled by Syrian troops and later stormed by pro-government Shabbiha militia, they said. Several people in the village were killed by the shelling and more were shot later in the head, execution-style, they added. 
  
 Syrian television said three security personnel had been killed in fighting in Taramseh, and accused "armed terrorist groups" of committing a massacre there. 
  
 A statement by the Hama Revolutionary Council said: "More than 220 people fell today in Taramseh. They died from bombardment by tanks and helicopters, artillery shelling and summary executions." 
  
 Fadi Sameh, an opposition activist from Taramseh, said he had left the town before the reported massacre but was in touch with residents. 
  
 "It appears that Alawite militiamen from surrounding villages descended on Taramseh after its rebel defenders pulled out, and started killing the people. Whole houses have been destroyed and burned from the shelling. 
  
 "Every family in the town seems to have members killed. We have names of men, women and children from countless families," he said, adding that many of the bodies were taken to a local mosque. 
  
 Ahmed, an activist from the Union of Hama Revolutionaries said: "We have reports of more than 220 killed. So far, we have 20 victims recorded with names and 60 bodies at a mosque. There are more bodies in the fields, bodies in the rivers and in houses ... people were trying to flee from the time the shelling started and whole families were killed trying to escape." 
  
 The reports could not be independently confirmed. Syrian authorities severely restrict the activities of independent journalists. 
  
 If the accounts are accurate, the incident would be the worst of its kind in the rebellion against the rule of President Bashar al-Assad that began 16 months ago. 
  
 (Editing by Andrew Roche) |||||
A: 
Opposition forces in Syria are reporting a new massacre by government troops, and this one might be the worst yet. Activists tell Reuters that more than 200 people, mostly civilians, were killed in the village of Tremseh in central Hama province. They cite a familiar pattern: strafing by helicopters and tanks, followed by execution-style slayings by militiamen loyal to Bashar al-Assad. The AP also has reports of a massacre, but its death toll is at 100, while the Guardian puts the figure at 250. No independent confirmation yet. The violence comes amid reports of more high-level defections in Assad's regime.