Syrian troops kill 27 in village raids

The men, all civilians, were mostly shot in the head or chest in their homes or in streets in the villages of Idita, Iblin and Balshon in Idlib province near the border with Turkey, the Syrian Network for Human Rights said.

The raids came as the United States appeared to open the door to eventually arming the Syrian opposition, saying that if a political solution to the crisis was impossible it might have to consider other options.

The comments, made by officials at both the White House and the US State Department Tuesday, marked a shift in emphasis by Washington, which so far has stressed a policy of not arming the opposition and has said little about alternatives.

Asked if the United States was shifting its stance on arming the rebels, US State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said Washington did not want to see the violence increase and was concentrating on political efforts to halt the bloodshed.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will meet representatives of some 70 countries and organizations in Tunis Friday for the first "Friends of Syria" meeting to coordinate the international community's next steps in response to the nearly year-long uprising against Assad.

The United States and its allies hope the Tunis conference will allow them to begin drawing up a plan for Syria after Russia and China vetoed a Western-backed Arab League peace plan at the UN Security Council.

With both Russia and Iran firmly backing Assad's government, political analysts say tacit US support for arming rebel fighters could be risky given Syria's complex ethnic and religious make-up and strategically important position.

Activists said Assad's forces killed more than 60 people in attacks on villages and an artillery barrage on the restive city of Homs.