U.N. monitors seeking to reach the site of a new reported massacre of Syrian villagers under small arms fire.

U.N. monitors seeking to reach the site of a new reported massacre of Syrian villagers under small arms fire.(AA).U.N. monitors seeking to reach the site of a new reported massacre of Syrian villagers by forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad were shot at with small arms, U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said on Thursday. Ban, speaking at the start of a special U.N. General Assembly session on the Syrian crisis, condemned the reported massacre as “an unspeakable barbarity” and called again on Assad to immediately implement international mediator Kofi Annan’s six-point peace plan, according to Reuters. “U.N. monitors were initially denied access,” Ban told the 193-country assembly after the reported slaughter of dozens of people in the village of al-Kubeir. “They are working now to get to the scene and I just learned a few minutes ago that while trying to do so, the U.N. monitors were shot at with small arms.” Ban again strongly condemned President Bashar al-Assad’s government, saying it had “lost all legitimacy,” with its record further tarnished by the massacres in al-Houla last month and in aAl-Kubeir. “The trail of blood leads back to those responsible,” he said. “Any regime or leader that tolerates such killing of innocents has lost its fundamental humanity.” Ban called the reports coming from aAl-Kubeir “shocking and sickening,” according to AFP. “We condemn this unspeakable barbarity and renew our determination to bring those responsible to account,” he said.Meanwhile, international envoy Kofi Annan expressed his “horror and condemnation” at the new massacre in Syria and called for a “new level” of international action to halt the violence. Annan made his condemnation in his speech to the U.N. General Assembly. Annan said the time has come for the international community to examine other options to get Syrian President Assad to comply with a peace plan. “The crisis is escalating, the violence is getting worse, the abuses are continuing, the country is becoming more polarized, more radicalized and serious, immediate neighbors are increasingly worried about the effects of spillover,” he told the General Assembly in New York.Read the full story here.

Update: Syria. General Robert Mood, the head of United Nations observers, has confirmed that monitors were prevented from reaching the site of the alleged massacre at al-Qubair, "They are being stopped at Syrian army checkpoints and in some cases turned back. Some of our patrols are being stopped by civilians in the area."