Damascus says a preliminary investigation showed armed groups carried out the Houla massacre. Earlier the government forces were blamed for the slaughter, which claimed lives of more than a hundred innocent citizens, including 32 children.

­The report says that up to 800 rebel fighters were involved in mass killing in Houla, a cluster of villages in Syria’s western Homs province, on May 25.

General Qassem Jamal Suleiman, head of the investigation committee, said that there were families which “refused to oppose the government and were at odds with the armed groups".

"Government forces did not enter the area where the massacre occurred, not before the massacre and not after it,'' Suleiman said.