At least 25 people were massacred Friday by “terrorists” in Syria’s northern province of Aleppo, state-run SANA news agency reported. Xinhua said armed terrorist groups abducted a number of citizens and massacred them in Darat Ezzeh suburb of Aleppo. The kidnapped people were shot dead before being mutilated.

Syria has witnessed a number of high profile massacres that has brought international condemnation for President Bashar al-Assad.

The Assad regime has denied involvement in the mass killings, and has accused the armed opposition of the massacres. Britain-based activists’ network Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said as many as 114 people were killed Thursday across the unrest-hit country.

According to UN estimates, up to 12,000 people have been killed in clashes between the government and opposition forces in Syria since the start of the uprising against Assad last year.