United Nations monitors and peacekeepers in Syria have been prohibited access to the alleged site of a massacre on near Hama.

Some UN officials were even shot at when they tried to enter the village of Mazraat al-Qubeir, where opposition activists claim dozens of civilians including women and children, were murdered in cold blood by forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad.

Syrian authorities have denied they perpetrated the atrocity.

Maj. Gen. Robert Mood of Norway, head of the U.N. observer mission in Syria, said he "is concerned about the restriction imposed on its movement as it will impede our ability to monitor, observe and report.”

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