Syrian urged the UN Security Council on Saturday to condemn a massacre committed by the al-Qaida-linked Nusra Front in the central province of Hama, according to the state news agency SANA.

The Syrian Foreign Ministry said in a statement the Nusra Front and likeminded groups stormed the town of Zara in the southern countryside of Hama on Thursday, slaughtering women, children and the elderly without discrimination.

The terrorists have viciously killed the civilians in Zara while they were asleep.

The ministry said the massacre will not dissuade the Syrian government from continuing to battle the terrorist groups, urging the UN Security Council to condemn the killing of civilians in Zara.

In earlier reports, the official Syrian media outlet said 16 were killed in Zara, but the pro-government Sama TV said hundreds were killed, injured or kidnapped.

Rebels published haunting images, one of which showed the radical rebels stepping on the bodies of bloodied women, with blood splashed on a wall in the background.

Sama TV said the Syrian army is bracing to unleash a counter offensive to retake the town, which is inhabited by people of the Alawite minority, to whom the ruling elite in Syria belongs.

That explains why the Nusra Front slaughtered the people in Zara, as such radical groups have been targeting minority communities in Syria, which support the administration of President Bashar al-Assad.