Activists say more than 60 people were killed in a government airstrike on a bakery in a rebel-held town in central Syria.
The strike on the town of Halfaya on Sunday left scattered bodies and debris up and down a street, and more than a dozen dead and wounded were trapped in tangled heaps of dirt and rubble.
The attack appeared to be the government's response to a newly announced rebel offensive seeking to drive the Syrian army from towns north of the central city of Hama.
Halfaya was the first of the area's towns to be "liberated" by rebel fighters, and activists saw Sunday's attack as payback.
"Halfaya was the first and biggest victory in the Hama countryside," said Hama activist Mousab Alhamadee via Skype. "That's why the regime is punishing them in this way."
The exact total number of dead remained unclear, but the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said more than 60 people were killed.
That number is expected to rise, it said, because some 50 of those wounded in the strike are in critical condition.
For the past week, rebels have been launching attacks in the area, most notably in the nearby village of Morek, where they hope to seize control of the country's main north-south highway.
The bakery attack coincided with the start of a two-day visit by Lakhdar Brahimi, who represents the UN and the Arab League, to meet with top Syrian officials.
Mr Brahimi said he held talks with Syrian President Bashar al Assad on Monday.
"I had the honour to meet the president and as usual we exchanged views on the many steps to be taken in the future," he told reporters at his hotel in Damascus.
Meanwhile, Russia said on Monday that it would be "political suicide" for the Syrian government to use chemical weapons against the armed opposition.
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in an interview released by the state television channel RT that Mr Assad had given Moscow repeated assurances he had no plans to order such an attack.
"I do not believe Syria would use chemical weapons," Mr Lavrov said in comments translated by the channel into English. "It would be a political suicide for the government if it does."
Anti-regime activists say more than 40,000 people have been killed since Syria's crisis began in March 2011.
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