Dozens of civilians were killed in the latest round of violence in the central Syrian city of Homs, according to the government and activists opposing the regime of President Bashar Assad. Each side blamed the other for the deaths, the most recent of hundreds recorded in the beleaguered town.

Anti-government sources said Assad’s security forces killed about 53 people, almost all of them women and children. But the official Syrian Arab News Agency said “terrorist-armed groups” in Homs kidnapped and killed the civilians, then mutilated their bodies, in a stunt to create fresh propaganda to use in a worldwide campaign to discredit the government.