Residents gather before a burial ceremony for what activists say are victims of shelling by the Syrian army, in the Khalidiya neighbourhood in Homs —Photo by Reuters

DAMASCUS: Syrian troops killed more than 230 people in shelling of the city of Homs in a “horrific massacre” on Saturday, activists said, as a UN draft resolution was to be put to a vote despite Russian opposition.

While Western diplomats said the vote would go ahead, Russia announced that Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov would travel to Damascus on Tuesday to press Syrian President Bashar al-Assad for a political solution.

The Damascus government denied involvement in the pre-dawn assault that sparked international condemnation, blaming groups trying to incite unrest ahead of the possible Security Council vote on the UN draft resolution.

US President Barack Obama denounced the “unspeakable assault” on Homs and demanded that Assad “step aside.”

“Assad must halt his campaign of killing and crimes against his own people now. He must step aside and allow a democratic transition to proceed immediately,” Obama said in a statement.

France, a permanent member of the UN Security Council, condemned this “further step in savagery,” calling it a “crime against humanity.”

In an apparent allusion to Moscow, it said anyone hindering condemnation of the violence and steps toward a political solution would “bear a heavy responsibility in history.”

As news of the Homs killing spread, protesters stormed Syrian embassies in Athens, Berlin, Cairo, Kuwait and London, as Tunisia announced it was expelling Syria’s ambassador and withdrawing its recognition of the Assad regime.

The opposition Syrian National Council (SNC) said “Assad forces randomly bombed residential areas in Homs, including Khalidiyeh and Qusur, which resulted in at least 260 civilians killed and hundreds of wounded, including men, women, and children.”

The “Assad regime committed one of the most horrific massacres since the beginning of the uprising in Syria” that has cost more than 6,000 lives since it broke out in mid-March, it said.

Syrian Observatory for Human Rights director Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP at least 237 were killed, including 99 women and children, and several hundred others wounded.

Assad’s forces also “bombed” the northern town of Jisr al-Shughur near the Turkish border, and suburbs of Damascus, the Britain-based Observatory said.

Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiya television channels showed dozens of bodies and scenes of chaos, as Tweets claiming to be from residents said Homs was “bleeding” under the bombardment.

A medical student told Al-Jazeera the local hospital was struggling to cope.

“There is a lack of blood, a lack of oxygen… There is danger in the streets,” he said. “We are overwhelmed. We have opened the mosque next door” to the wounded.

AFP was not able to verify the authenticity of videos or of opposition and resident accounts because of restrictions on reporting in Syria.

The government denied its army had shelled the flashpoint city in central city and accused television stations of “inciting” violence, the official SANA news agency said.

“The civilians shown by satellite television stations are citizens who were kidnapped and killed by armed gunmen” it said, accusing rebel forces of “wanting to use that information to (pressure) the Security Council.”

Elsewhere on Saturday, the civilian death toll rose to 21, the Observatory said, including 12 people killed when security forces opened fired on a funeral procession in Daraya, outside Damascus, the Observatory’s Abdel Rahman said.

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Russia has balked at any resolution that could be used to justify foreign military intervention, calling for Assad to quit or that would impose an arms embargo on Syria.

Foreign Minister Lavrov has said that the latest draft, which does not include any of those elements, “does not suit us at all and I hope that it is not put to a vote.”

And Moscow announced that Lavrov and the head of Russia’s intelligence service would go to Damascus and press Assad for a political solution.

“The visit by minister Lavrov and the head of the Foreign Intelligence Service (Mikhail) Fradkov to Damascus confirms the firm intention of obtaining a political solution to the conflict,” Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov wrote on Twitter.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton met Lavrov at a conference in Munich, Germany on Saturday, but it was not clear what if any progress was made on bridging differences over the draft.

“The secretary made clear that we feel, the United States feel, strongly that the UN Security Council should vote today,” the official said.

“Foreign Minister Lavrov did not dispute the urgency of the situation and the action now moves to New York,” a senior State Department official said.

Asked if the United States was still hopeful that Russia would vote “yes,”she replied: “We are.”

Obama said the Security Council “now has an opportunity to stand against the Assad regime’s relentless brutality and to demonstrate that it is a credible advocate for the universal rights that are written into the UN Charter.”