New 'massacre' reported in Syria as snipers fire on 'anything that moves'

Regime forces killed at least 10 people at the entrance of Jdeidet Artouz early Monday, but residents are unable to reach the bodies because "regime forces have been firing at anything that moves," the opposition Local Coordination Committees of Syria said. The LCC reported 17 people killed throughout Syria on Monday.

Similar tales of horror have emerged across the country.

On Sunday, the besieged Syrian city of Homs faced new terror as pro-regime forces executed 10 young men in the dissident stronghold, opposition activists said.

Forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad stormed the Shammas neighborhood of Homs and gathered 350 young men in the square of a mosque, said the Syrian National Council, an umbrella opposition group.

"The military began calling the residents from the mosques surrounding the Shammas neighborhood that all young men need to come down to the streets with their hands behind their heads," the SNC said.

Another opposition group, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said three children were killed when regime forces fired on a minibus carrying residents fleeing the Shammas neighborhood.

But on state-run TV, the government blamed "terrorists" for that attack, saying three people, including two children, were killed on the bus.

While the country is embroiled in a civil war, some opposition activists tried to distance themselves from certain images shown on YouTube. One video appears to show rebels in control of a government communications building in El Bab, part of Aleppo province, throwing the bodies of government fighters off a roof.

"We strongly condemn this heinous act," said Abdul Hafiz Abdul Rahman, an activist with the Syrian human rights organization MAF. He said when he saw the video, "I felt that part of me died, and now I'm worried about the revolution."

But several cities came under attack by government forces Sunday, including Rastan, which endured "very intense shelling," according to the opposition LCC.

Syrian crisis: Clinton talks contingency plans with Turkey

An activist in Rastan described the situation via Skype: "The shelling is continuing for hours now. There is massive destruction as well as many people killed and injured. We call for help to break the siege around the city. There is no running water or electricity. There is lack of food and baby formula. The only automated bakery was shelled so we have lack of bread as well."

U.S. slaps new sanctions on Syria, extends those against Hezbollah

While no one can predict when the bloody civil war will end, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Saturday the United States would start to develop contingency plans with its Turkish allies in the event that the embattled Syrian regime collapses.

Her announcement in Istanbul came 17 months into an escalating crisis that has claimed more than 17,000 lives and forced an estimated 150,000 refugees to flee into neighboring nations, including Turkey, which is hosting 50,000 people.

"There is a very clear understanding about the need to end this conflict quickly, but not doing it in a way that produces even more deaths, injuries and destruction," Clinton said after talks with her Turkish counterpart, Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu.