DAMASCUS: Clashes continued Tuesday between the Syrian army and armed groups in some parts of the unrest-hit country, as the international condemnation was growing hours ahead of a scheduled meeting at the United Nations Security Council to discuss the Syrian crisis. 

Seven loud explosions were heard Tuesday from the capital Damascus' eastern suburb of Rankous, where the fiercest clashes between the government forces and alleged armed militia have been raging for days, eyewitnesses told China's Xinhua news agency. 

The government forces escalated the crackdown over the past days on violence in restive areas in central Syria and Damascus suburbs, as the leadership pledged to beat "terrorists" with an iron grip. 

A Syrian newspaper claimed earlier Tuesday that armed groups have committed a "mass massacre" in the central province of Homs, warning that those groups have dramatically stepped up their violent operations. 

Al-Watan newspaper quoted eyewitnesses at al-Nazeheen neighborhood in Homs as saying that a group of gunmen stormed a number of houses and committed "massacres" against at least four families, adding that the gunmen killed a six-member family, including four children aging between one year and six years old. 

The paper also said that life has become normal in the Damascus suburb of Ghouta, adding that shops reopened and electricity and telephone lines reoperated following the government's operation against armed groups. 

In a related development, Xinhua cited Syrian official news agency SANA as saying that 12 terrorists were killed and eight others injured while they were preparing explosives at al-Rastan in Homs. 

SANA said the terrorists were preparing explosives to be used against law enforcement members or to terrify civilians when the explosives went off. 

Syrian Interior Ministry said Monday that over the past three days specialized authorities had carried out "qualitative" operation in Damascus suburbs and had tracked down some "armed terrorist groups."

In a statement carried by SANA, the ministry said the Syrian army tracked down terrorist groups at the Damascus suburbs of Harasta, Douma, Saqba and Hamouriyah, saying that those groups have "committed atrocities, planted mines and blew them up at public roads, terrified residents including children and women, and attacked public and private properties." 

Meanwhile, the international community has ramped up pressure ahead of the UN Security Council meeting due on Tuesday to give a push to a plan of the Arab League (AL) to pressure Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to relinquish power. 

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Monday denounced the growing violence in Syria, calling on the UN Security Council to act. 

"The United States condemns in the strongest-possible terms the escalation of the Syrian regime's violent and brutal attacks on its own people," Clinton said.

She accused the Syrian government of shelling civilian areas with mortars and tank fire and bringing down whole buildings on top of their occupants, saying that as a result hundreds of civilians had been killed in the past few days. 

Some Syrian opposition activists were quoted by Arab TV channels as saying that as many as 100 people were killed Monday during clashes in restive areas across Syria. 

However, their accounts could not be independently verified. 

President of the European Council Herman Van Rompuy said Monday that "a swift reaction by the United Nations Security Council is urgently needed" over the situation in Syria. 

"I urge all members of the UN Security Council to assume their responsibilities in relation to the situation in Syria," he said, "and adopt steps long overdue in order to bring an end to the repression in Syria." 

In response, a source in Syrian Foreign Ministry sharply denounced what it called "scandalously" increased "hostile" statements by the United States and the West against Syria. 

In a statement carried by SANA on Tuesday, the source said that those statements cannot be linked with the process of reforms currently underway in Syria "which the US and its followers have long claimed their keenness about." 

Syria deplores statements that are "illogical and unwise," it said, adding that the statements were issued by countries "that used to turn the Middle East into an area for their foolishness and foiled experiments." 

The source reasserted that Syria, "which is today defending itself against terrorism and will continue to do so, will be the exception that had undermined in the past and will undermine today the policies of anarchy espoused by these countries." 

- Bernama