UNICEF outraged by killing of 32 children in Syria

UNITED NATIONS - The UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) said on Saturday that the UN agency is outraged at the latest killing of 32 Syrian children, who were under the age of 10, in the conflicts-torn Arab country.

United Nations observers in Syria confirmed the attack in the villages of Houla near the Syrian central city of Homs.

It has been reported that more than 92 people were killed and hundreds more wounded in what activists said was an artillery barrage by government forces on Friday evening. But the Syrian state media blamed the massacre on armed "terrorist" groups.

The UNICEF statement came in a press release issued by Sarah Crowe, spokesperson for the executive director of the UN agency.

"This outrageous crime against such young children who have no part in these battles points to a new urgency in finding solutions to the Syrian conflict," Crowe said. "Such a massacre cannot go unpunished."

"Our deepest condolences to the Syrian families who have suffered so much over the past 15 months of turmoil," the spokesperson added.

Earlier on Saturday, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon also condemned the attack.

"The secretary-general and the joint special envoy condemn in the strongest possible terms the killing, confirmed by United Nations observers, of dozens of men, women and children and the wounding of hundreds more in the village of El-Houleh, near Homs," said a statement issued on behalf of the UN secretary-general and the joint special envoy of the UN and Arab League for Syria, Kofi Annan.