Image caption Syrian troops, tanks and artillery were all supposed to have been withdrawn to barracks in April 
 
 Hopes of a new international initiative over Syria have suffered a setback after a Russian minister ruled out any action by the UN Security Council soon. 
 
 Russia "categorically" opposed foreign intervention in Syria, he said, as outrage grew over the massacre of 108 people in Houla last week. 
 
 Turkey is expelling all Syrian diplomatic staff from Ankara, following similar moves by Western states. 
 
 UN observers have verified what appears to have been another multiple killing. 
 
 Thirteen bodies were found in al-Sukar, east of the city of Deir al-Zour, with their hands tied behind their backs and signs that some had been shot in the head from close range. 
 
 Maj Gen Robert Mood, head of the UN observer mission which recently deployed in Syria, said he was "deeply disturbed by this appalling and inexcusable act". 
 
 Thousands of people, perhaps as many as 15,000, have been killed since the revolt against the rule of President Bashar al-Assad began in March of last year. 
 
 Expulsions 'counterproductive' 
 
 China and Russia, which both wield a veto at the UN Security Council, have blocked two previous resolutions calling for tougher action on Damascus. 
 
 On Tuesday, French President Francois Hollande said military intervention authorised by the Security Council had not yet been ruled out. 
 
 Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Kofi Annan: "Syrian people do not want their future to be one of bloodshed and division" 
 
 The US state department expressed hope that the events in Houla might prove a "turning point in Russian thinking". 
 
 Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov said: "We have always said that we are categorically against any outside interference in the Syrian conflict because this will only exacerbate the situation for both Syria and the region as a whole." 
 
 Russia's foreign ministry said in a statement that the expulsion of Syrian diplomats from leading Western states seemed to be "counterproductive". "After all, vital [diplomatic] channels... end up being closed," it added. 
 
 A spokesman for China's foreign ministry reiterated Beijing's opposition to military intervention in Syria or forced "regime change". 
 
 Syria's main opposition group, the Syrian National Council, said Russia had chosen "to join ranks with the Syrian regime and to provide it with political cover", AFP news agency reports. 
 
 Turkey's move goes further than Tuesday's co-ordinated action by other states, which restricted their expulsions to the most senior staff. However, Syrian consular staff in Istanbul will remain. 
 
 In apparent retaliation for the diplomatic expulsions, Syria gave the Dutch charge d'affaires - one of the few remaining top-level Western diplomatic representatives in Damascus - 72 hours to leave. 
 
 In another development, Syria's honorary consul in California, Hazem Chehabi, resigned, saying he could not continue in his post after the "barbaric" massacre in Houla. 
 
 One of the opposition organisations monitoring the violence, the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, reported 39 new deaths in attacks across Syria on Wednesday. The figure, quoted by AFP news agency, included 15 government soldiers. 
 
 Children and women 
 
 Troops, tanks and artillery were all supposed to have been withdrawn to barracks in April as the first step on the ground under six-point peace plan of UN and Arab League envoy Kofi Annan. 
 
 Taldou, Houla region The region of Houla, in the west of Syria, comprises several villages and small towns 
 
 The village of Taldou lies around 2km south-west of the main town, also called Houla 
 
 The area is in the province of Homs, which has seen heavy fighting in recent months 
 
 Houla's villages are predominantly Sunni Muslim, but the region is ringed by a number of Alawite villages - the sect of the Syrian president Bashar al-Assad Houla: How a massacre unfolded Press split on Syria mass killing Timeline: Syria's massacres 
 
 But it simply has not happened, says the BBC's Jim Muir in neighbouring Lebanon. 
 
 Amid the reports of continuing violence, it appears Mr Annan's talks with President Bashar al-Assad and opposition figures in Damascus on Tuesday have had no immediate impact on the ground. 
 
 Mr Annan's deputy, Jean-Marie Guehenno, is due to report to the UN Security Council on Wednesday on the talks with Mr Assad. 
 
 Forty-nine children and 34 women were among those killed in Houla last Friday and Saturday. 
 
 Witnesses have told the UN the vast majority of killings were committed by pro-government shabiha militiamen. 
 
 The UN Human Rights Council will hold a special session on Syria on Friday looking into the killings, officials said. ||||| Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Sergei Lavrov: "I believe this is counterproductive and quite a dangerous approach" 
 
 Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has said Western attempts to get Moscow to discuss sanctions against Syria contain "elements of blackmail". 
 
 Mr Lavrov said the West had threatened to end a UN observer mission if Russia opposed its draft resolution. 
 
 Peace envoy Kofi Annan is due in Moscow, and is expected to urge Russia to put more pressure on Syria's leaders to begin a political transition. 
 
 Russia has strong ties with Syria and has vetoed foreign intervention calls. 
 
 It has circulated its own draft resolution calling for the extension of the observer mission's mandate, which runs out on Friday. It does not contain any threat of sanctions against Damascus. 
 
 Mr Annan's visit comes amid reports of some of the heaviest fighting in the conflict so far around Damascus. 
 
 The BBC's Jim Muir says the clashes seem to be creeping ever closer to the heart of the capital and the centre of the government's power. 
 
 Analysis There have been mixed signals from Moscow in recent weeks, with some suggestions that Russia's support for the Syrian government may be waning. Today, though, Sergei Lavrov dispelled the rumours. Just a few minutes into his press conference, it became obvious that Moscow's position hadn't changed an inch. Russia refuses to lay the principal blame for the violence on President Assad; it is up to both sides in the conflict to stop fighting and start negotiating. The Russians are clearly fed up of Western criticism that Moscow could - but won't - push President Assad from power. The message from Mr Lavrov: it's "unrealistic" to expect Russia to do that, because there are still many Syrians who support President Assad. And when Russia's foreign minister accused the West of trying to "blackmail" Russia into supporting a tougher UN Security Council Resolution, he revealed the chasm between East and West over Syria. Judging from Mr Lavrov's words, Kofi Annan will struggle to persuade Moscow to adopt a tougher tone with Damascus. 
 
 Activists and residents reported that tanks and mortars were used on the southern edge of the city, in areas like Tadhamon and Midan and around nearby Palestinian refugee camps. 
 
 A convoy of army reinforcements was reported to have been attacked by rebels in Kfar Sousa to the west, leading to further clashes there. 
 
 Residents were said to be fleeing some areas, while in other parts of the city protesters blocked motorways with burning tyres. 
 
 Political transition 
 
 Mr Lavrov said the West had told Russia to back a draft resolution on sanctions or it would "refuse to extend the mandate of the observer mission". 
 
 It was "not right" to say that pressure should only be brought on the government of President Bashar al-Assad and not the opposition to end the conflict, he added. 
 
 "We do not support Assad," he said. "We support what has been agreed by all sides." 
 
 But he said it was unrealistic to expect Russia to persuade Mr Assad to step down. 
 
 "He will not leave power. And this is not because we are protecting him but because there is a very significant part of the Syrian population behind him," he said. 
 
 Mr Annan is expected to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin and Mr Lavrov during two days of talks. 
 
 Mr Annan is expected to ask Mr Lavrov to put pressure on the Syrian authorities to begin a political transition. 
 
 The BBC's Steve Rosenberg in Moscow says Mr Annan knows Russia's role is crucial for the success of his peace initiative, but there is little sign that the Kremlin is ready to do what he says. 
 
 Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption The BBC's Jim Muir says fighting has intensified in many parts of Syria 
 
 Part of the reason for this is that the Russians fear even greater chaos and bloodshed post-Assad, he says. 
 
 But Moscow is also deeply suspicious of the West and reluctant to endorse regime change, our correspondent adds, although this could change if it decides its own economic and geopolitical interests are better served by Mr Assad going. 
 
 UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is also expected to raise the Syrian issue with Chinese leaders when he arrives in Beijing for a China-Africa summit. China has joined Russia in vetoing several Western-backed UN draft resolutions calling for tougher action. 
 
 Meanwhile, the Syrian government has denied that it used heavy weapons in its attack on the village of Tremseh last Thursday. 
 
 Annan's six-point plan 1. Syrian-led political process to address the aspirations and concerns of the Syrian people 2. End to violence by all sides; army troops to stop using heavy weapons and withdraw to barracks 3. Parties to allow humanitarian aid 4. Authorities to free political detainees 5. Authorities to ensure freedom of movement for journalists 6. Authorities to allow peaceful demonstrations 
 
 Activists initially described fighting in Tremseh, which is near the city of Hama, as a massacre of dozens of civilians, but later accounts suggested most of the dead were armed rebels. 
 
 UN observers at the scene have said Syrian forces used heavy artillery, tanks and helicopters, but Damascus has denied those allegations and says just two civilians had been killed. 
 
 The accusations, if proved, would mean Damascus had broken an agreement it made with Mr Annan. 
 
 Separately Morocco has become the latest of many countries in the region and around the world to expel its Syrian ambassador. 
 
 The country's foreign ministry said in a statement that Nabih Ismail had been declared persona non grata. 
 
 Shortly afterwards Syria expelled Morocco's ambassador in Damascus. 
 
 Some 16,000 people are thought to have been killed since the uprising against Mr Assad's regime began in March 2011. 
 
 Clashes in Damascus suburbs ||||| U.N.-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan enters his car after his meeting with Jordan's Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh in Amman, May 30, 2012. x U.N.-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan enters his car after his meeting with Jordan's Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh in Amman, May 30, 2012. 
 
 Handout photo released by Syrian opposition's Shaam News Network shows UN observers at hospital morgue before their burial in central Syrian town of Houla on May 26, 2012. x Handout photo released by Syrian opposition's Shaam News Network shows UN observers at hospital morgue before their burial in central Syrian town of Houla on May 26, 2012. 
 
 x 
 
 VOA Russian Service's Yuliya Appel and Middle East Voices' Mohammed Elshinnawi contributed to this report. 
 
 The deputy to international envoy Kofi Annan, Jean-Marie Guéhenno, has briefed the U.N.'s 15-nation Security Council on the envoy's visit to Syria, prompting one diplomat to call the current situation a "low point in the conflict."After Wednesday's closed briefing, Germany's ambassador to the United Nations, Peter Wittig, told reporters that he hoped the "flagrant violations" like the recent massacre in Houla was an "eye opener for some members of the council." He added that Germany is "against the militarization of the conflict."​​​​Mr. Annan left Syria on Wednesday to attend talks with Jordanian officials. A U.N. official said the international envoy did not secure any major steps from the Syrian government to implement a faltering peace plan for the country."After 15 months of violence, only very strong signals will have an impact," Guéhenno told reporters. "Small diplomatic steps will not suffice."Russia's U.N. ambassador, Vitaly Churkin, whose country says it will veto any Security Council resolution that authorizes foreign military intervention in Syria, said after the briefing that Moscow is dissatisfied with the "current state of things."The U.N. observer mission in Syria confirmed the killings of 13 people in the northeastern province of Deir el-Zour. The mission said U.N. monitors found the bodies late Tuesday, with some of the dead appearing to have been shot in the head from short range and all having their hands tied behind their backs.U.N. observer chief, Norwegian General Robert Mood, said he is "deeply disturbed by this appalling and inexcusable act." He called on all parties "to exercise restraint and end the cycle of violence."​​International outrage has mounted since a massacre of more than 100 civilians took place in the central Syrian town of Houla last week.Diplomats in Geneva said the U.N. Human Rights Council plans to hold an emergency meeting on Friday to discuss the massacre. They said the United States, Turkey and Qatar led the push for the special session.Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak urged the international community to take tougher action against Bashar al-Assad's government."The events in Syria mean the world must take action -- not only by talking, but by acting," Barak said. "These are crimes against humanity, and it is impossible that the international community stand aloof."The U.S. Treasury on Wednesday announced it will freeze the assets of the Syrian International Islamic Bank to tighten economic pressure on the Syrian government.Several countries are expelling Syrian diplomats in protest of the Houla massacre. Japan and Turkey announced the step on Wednesday. They joined the United States, Australia, Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Spain, which announced the expulsions of Syrian diplomats on Tuesday​​The Syrian government retaliated on Wednesday by ordering the Dutch charge d’Affaires to leave Syria within 72 hours.Russia's U.N. ambassador on Wednesday called expulsions a "bilateral matter," but warned that they could be "misinterpreted by those who want to see foreign military intervention and fighting in Syria."In Beijing, Foreign Ministry Spokesman Liu Weimin said he is not aware of any Chinese move to expel or disrupt the work of Syrian diplomats in the country. "China opposes military intervention in Syria and opposes regime change by force," Weimin said.Annan's plan called on the Syrian government to withdraw heavy weapons from civilian areas and abide by a truce with rebels. But attacks by both sides have continued.Syrian activists said fighting between government and rebel forces on Wednesday killed at least nine people, five of them in the Damascus suburb of Douma. They said government troops shelled Douma and the central city of Homs, which also is an opposition stronghold. The casualties could not be independently confirmed.Abu Orouba, a media liaison for the opposition Local Coordination Committees of Syria, told VOA the situation across the country is dire."Annan’s plan is a real failure. As a Syrian citizen, I see that it failed to produce any result - actually none of its articles were implemented. Even the cease-fire requirement was not met," Orouba said. "If Annan’s plan is still on the table and the U.N. observers are still on the ground, why did this massacre take place? Why is there no cease-fire?"Political scientist Alexei Malashenko of the Carnegie Center in Moscow says the situation in Syria is so dead-locked that a solely diplomatic solution is becoming impossible.“[President Assad] is a nervous man, and, it seems, is so confident in himself that he has gone over the top in his actions,” Malashenko said. “The massacre in Houla is only the beginning; it will continue to get worse.” ||||| BEIRUT Syrian rebels on Wednesday gave President Bashar al-Assad a 48-hour deadline to comply with an international peace plan otherwise they would renew their battle to overthrow him. 
 
 The ultimatum was issued after U.N. observers reported the discovery of 13 bodies bound and shot in eastern Syria, adding to the world outcry over the massacre last week of 108 men, women and children. 
 
 The latest developments emphasized how the peace plan drafted by U.N.-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan has failed to stem 14 months of bloodshed or bring the Syrian government and opposition to the negotiating table. 
 
 Colonel Qassim Saadeddine of the rebel Free Syrian Army said its leadership had set a deadline of 0900 GMT Friday for Assad to implement the peace plan, which includes a ceasefire, deployment of observers, and free access for humanitarian aid and journalists. 
 
 If it fails to do so "we are free from any commitment and we will defend and protect the civilians, their villages and their cities," Saadeddine said in a statement posted on social media. 
 
 Both sides in the conflict have violated a tenuous ceasefire over the past two months but Assad's forces have been by far the worst offender, according to U.N. monitors. 
 
 Outrage at last Friday's massacre in the town of Houla, led a host of Western countries to expel senior Syrian diplomats on Tuesday and to press Russia and China to allow tougher action by the U.N. Security Council. 
 
 Major-General Robert Mood, the Norwegian head of the observer mission, said the 13 corpses found on Wednesday in Assukar, about 50 km (30 miles) east of Deir al-Zor, had their hands tied behind their backs. Some had been shot in the head from close range. 
 
 Mood called the latest killings an "appalling and inexcusable act" and appealed to all factions to end the cycle of violence. 
 
 He did not apportion any blame but Syrian activists said the victims were army defectors killed by Assad's forces. 
 
 Video footage posted by activists showed the bodies face down on the ground, hands tied behind their backs, with dark pools of blood around their heads and torsos. 
 
 U.N. peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous said in New York on Tuesday that the Syrian army and "shabbiha" militiamen supporting Assad were probably responsible for killing the 108 people in Houla with artillery and tank fire, guns and knives. 
 
 The government denied any responsibility and blamed Islamist "terrorists" - its term for rebel forces. 
 
 The uprising began last March with street protests against Assad, who succeeded his late, authoritarian father Hafez al-Assad 11 years ago to perpetuate the family dynasty. 
 
 While initially a pro-democracy movement, the struggle has grown into an armed struggle increasingly involving sectarian rivalries pitting the Sunni Muslim majority against the Alawite sect, to which the Assad clan belongs. 
 
 Assad's forces have killed 7,500 people since it began, according to a U.N. toll. The government, which says the unrest is the work of foreign-backed terrorists, says more than 2,600 soldiers or security agents have been killed. 
 
 PEACE PLAN 
 
 Annan, trying to save his peace plan from collapse, told Assad in Damascus on Tuesday that Syria was at a tipping point. 
 
 The pro-opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that more than 100 people were killed the same day. Syria's state news agency said pumping had been halted to an oil pipeline in eastern Syria after a bomb attack on Wednesday. 
 
 Diplomats said the U.N. Human Rights Council would meet in Geneva on Friday to consider the Houla massacre, the fourth time Syria has faced such scrutiny since the anti-Assad revolt broke out in March 2011. 
 
 Assad has so far proved impervious to international scolding and Western sanctions for his crackdown and has failed to return troops and tanks to barracks, as required by the Annan plan. 
 
 However, the U.N. observers sent in to monitor a notional ceasefire were able to verify the horrors in Houla, which produced a wave of world revulsion. 
 
 Assad's heavyweight international allies, China and Russia, stuck to their rejection of any intervention or U.N.-backed penalties to force him to change course. 
 
 Asked if Western and Arab countries were pressing Moscow to change its position, President Vladimir Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday: "Russia is a country with a consistent foreign policy and any pressure is hardly appropriate." 
 
 The West is itself averse to military intervention, although French President Francois Hollande said on Tuesday this could change if the U.N. Security Council backed it. But that is not possible unless veto-wielding members Russia and China allow it. 
 
 KICKED OUT 
 
 Turkey joined other countries including the United States, Britain, France and Germany in expelling Syrian diplomats in protest at the Houla massacre, saying unspecified international measures would follow if crimes against humanity continued. 
 
 Stung by the expulsions, Syria told the Dutch charge d'affaires to leave. She was one of the few senior Western diplomats left in Damascus. 
 
 Despite the diplomatic deadlock, Annan, a former U.N. secretary-general and Nobel peace laureate, is pressing on with his mission. 
 
 "It is important to find a solution that will lead to a democratic transition in Syria and find a way of ending the killings as soon as possible," he said after talks in Jordan on Wednesday. "With goodwill and hard work, we can succeed." 
 
 It is hard to see where a breakthrough might come from. 
 
 China reiterated that it opposed military intervention and did not support a forced change of government. 
 
 Russia also reasserted its hostility to military action or to any further Security Council measures beyond a non-binding statement condemning the Houla killings. 
 
 "We believe consideration in the Security Council of any new measures to influence the situation now would be premature," Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov said. 
 
 Russia and China have twice vetoed Western-backed Council resolutions condemning the crackdown. 
 
 In New York, Annan's deputy Jean-Marie Guehenno told the Security Council that direct engagement between government and opposition was "impossible at the moment". 
 
 He also expressed serious doubt over the Syrian government's commitment to the Annan plan, a diplomat with knowledge of the closed session said. 
 
 (Writing by Alistair Lyon and Kevin Liffey; Editing by Angus MacSwan)
– Turkey and Japan today joined a number of nations who have given Syrian diplomats within their borders the boot, as the head of the UN observers in Syria revealed that 13 bodies had been found with their hands tied in the country's east, reports Reuters. But the developments are unlikely to chip away at Russia and China's resistance to taking tougher steps against Syria. To wit, Russia's deputy foreign minister today announced that Russia is "categorically against" military intervention in Syria and noted that it would be "premature" for the UN Security Council to take any fresh steps. The BBC notes that, in light of Russia's veto power on the council, the latest remarks indicate there's little hope for new initiatives. And the overall lack of progress is only underscored by the fact that Kofi Annan this morning left Syria—without getting the government to agree to take any of the "bold steps" he was pushing, reports Voice of America. Writing for the Washington Post, David Ignatius thinks the answer is easy—Bashar al-Assad needs to go—and the reason why that's not happening is obvious: Vladimir Putin, who is "playing a cynical game of power politics." The focus shouldn't be on pressuring Assad, but on turning "up the heat on Putin," he writes.