UN Calls for Probe into Alleged Massacre in Syrian City

Scott Peterson/Getty Images(DAMASCUS, Syria) -- Activist groups claimed that another 160 people were killed across Syria on Monday as the international community came to grips with the scene of another massacre allegedly perpetrated by government forces, this time in the Damascus suburb of Daraya where mass graves were discovered.

United Nations officials are calling for an immediate investigation into the deaths of at least 245 civilians -- many of them women and children -- in Daraya, the site of protests against the government of President Bashar al-Assad in March 2011.

The opposition Local Coordination Committees of Syria asserted on Monday that Daraya was targeted because it was "one of the first cities that revolted against the Assad regime and was the spearhead of the peaceful demonstrations in the beginning of the revolution."

One opposition member alleged to have seen soldiers "picking up young men from the streets, from their homes, and conducted summary executions."  He said that whole families were also killed in the same way.

Videos of dozens of bloodied corpses supposedly from Daraya have also been posted online.

Meanwhile, Syria's state-run and pro-government TV networks offered a different story of what went on in Daraya, claiming that the army was welcomed by residents who were glad soldiers had driven "terrorists" out of the city.

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