Syria: crimes against humanity 'ordered from top' President Bashar al-Assad's forces bombarded opposition Sunni Muslim districts in the city of Homs for the 20th day on Thursday, activists said, despite international outrage over the reported killing of more than 80 people on Wednesday. The regime meanwhile said it was not responsible for the deaths of the two Western journalists - Marie Colvin and Remi Ochlik - who "sneaked" into the country. "We reject statements holding Syria responsible for the deaths of journalists who sneaked into its territory at their own risk," said a ministry statement carried by SANA state news agency. Armoured forces loyal to Assad moved into the rebel district of Baba Amro in Homs on Thursday, opposition sources said. Syria is "on the brink" of civil war and deep divisions among world powers complicate the prospects for ending nearly a year of violence sparked by protests against the regime, the three-member UN panel said in their latest 72-page report. "The continuation of the crisis carries the risk of radicalising the population, deepening inter-communal tensions and eroding the fabric of society," it warned. The UN team was not allowed into Syria but said it had interviewed 369 victims and witnesses. They included people still in Syria whom it contacted by telephone and those who have fled to neighbouring countries which it declined to identify. "Satellite imagery of areas where military and security forces were deployed and related reported violations occurred, corroborated a number of witness accounts," it said. Thousands of people, mainly civilians but also soldiers and defectors, have been killed during the nearly year-long crackdown, it said. Army snipers and Shabbiha gunmen posted at strategic points terrorised the population, targeting and killing small children, women and other unarmed civilians. Fragmentation mortar bombs were also fired into densely populated neighbourhoods. Some 6,399 civilians and 1,680 army defectors were killed in the violence through Feb. 15, according to figures provided by the Violations Documentation Centre, a network of activists in Syria and abroad quoted in the U.N. report. The level of fighting has increased since November, especially in Homs, Hama and Idlib provinces, with many areas besieged by state forces, according to the report. On several occasions in January and February 2012, entire families - children and adults - were brutally murdered in Homs. On both sides, there is a pattern of abducting people not directly involved in the clashes for the purposes of revenge, ransom or as hostages," the U.N. panel said. More than 18,000 people were in detention as of Feb. 15, it said, again citing the Violations Documentation Centre. Security agencies continued to systematically arrest wounded patients in state hospitals and to interrogate them, often using torture, about their supposed participation in opposition demonstrations or armed activities. The panel, the report said, had "documented evidence that sections of Homs Military Hospital and Al Ladikah State Hospital had been transformed into torture centres." The inquiry, set up by the UN Human Rights Council last August, published a preliminary report in November accusing Syrian forces of crimes against humanity including murder, rape and torture. The 47-member forum is to examine the crisis in Syria at a four-week session starting on Monday. Its other members are Karen Koning AbuZayd of the United States, a former head of the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) helping Palestinian refugees, and Yakin Erturk, a professor from Turkey who has served as UN investigator on violence against women.