Harrowing image of 'ethnic cleansing' in Syria where militia loyal to Assad are blamed for the deaths of women and children Bodies of women mutilated and one toddler was covered in burns Survivor tells of pro-regime gangs killing everybody they met with knives and guns Sunni families fleeing the sectarian attacks, but army tells them to go home From the purges in Cambodia under Pol Pot to the ethnic cleansing during the Balkans conflict, it is always the innocent who suffer. Today in Syria, no woman or child is safe from the roaming gangs of militia loyal to President Bashar Assad. This graphic image - pixelated because the wounds are so shockingly gruesome - shows the bodies left lying in the street after a massacre in the village of Baniyas. Slaughter: Innocent men, women and children - their bodies pixilated because the wounds were so gruesome - lie in a street in Banyias. It was released by Edlib News Network, ENN Some were lying in pools of blood, and one toddler was covered in burns, her clothes singed and her legs charred. Some of the women victims were mutilated. April 2011: More than 70 protesters killed as security forces fire on crowds in Deraa and Damascus. December 2011: Activists say more than 100 army defectors killed over two days in Idlib province. May 2012: Some 108 killed in Houla, near Homs - UN later blames Syrian troops and militia. August 2012: Witnesses and activists say at least 300 killed as government forces storm Darayya, a Damascus suburb. January 2013: At least 100 people killed and burned in their homes in Haswiya, near Homs. At least 77 people - 20 from the same family - were killed, a day after 72 died in nearby Bayda after it was overrun by government forces. Assad's regime claimed it had fought back against 'terrorist' groups' and restored peace and security to the area. But activists have posted harrowing video clips online to back up their claims that pro-regime militia known as the Shabbiha are involved in the operation. The BBC's correspondent Jim Muir claims there is a strong sectarian dimension to the killings. Baniyas is a Sunni Muslim pocket in the middle of a large Alawite enclave on Syria's Mediterranean coast, and activists in the area accuse militias loyal to Assad of ethnic cleansing. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights documented the names of at least 50 dead in Bayda. There were reports of men's bodies, some blindfolded, lying in the street. The massacre began following clashes with Assad forces who had earlier arrested villagers and killed them in prison after torture. A survivor named as Abu Abdullah told the Sunday Telegraph: 'Security and Shabbiha militia entered the village with knives and guns and started to kill everybody they met. Almost 60 per cent of the women and children of the village were killed. Hundreds of Sunni families are now fleeing the area, heading for nearby towns like Jableh and Tartou. But Rami Abdelrahman, head of the Observatory said: 'Now the army is turning people back at the checkpoints outside the town, telling them to go back to Baniyas, that nothing is wrong. There are also announcements going out on mosque loud speakers telling people to return home.