A family of six members was murdered by unidentified gunmen in central Homs province, as eight law-enforcement troops were killed Thursday in clashes with armed groups in several parts of Syria, state-run SANA news agency reported.

An armed group brutally killed a family at al-Arman al-Janoubi neighborhood in Homs Thursday, said SANA, adding that the group hand-cuffed Mohammad Riyad Dawish, his wife and his four children, and stabbed them to death.

The official news agency gave no further words about the details or motives behind the massacre of the Darwish family.

Meanwhile, three law-enforcement personnel were killed and seven others were injured when a primed explosive device, planted by an armed group, went off at the southern entrance of Idlib city in northern Syria, said SANA, adding that the military engineering units dismantled three explosive devices in Jiser al-Shughour region in Idlib countryside.

In the central province of Hama, two law-enforcement members were killed and another was injured by the gunfire of an armed group that attacked with grenades and machineguns the police station of Mahardeh in Hama countryside Thursday.

In southern Daraa province, three law-enforcement members were killed and five others were injured in an attack by an armed terrorist group in al-Sad area, said SANA.

In a related context, Syria's Health Ministry on Thursday denied as "untrue" the death of seven babies in a hospital in Hama countryside because of power outages.

In a statement carried by SANA, the ministry stressed that "no babies died in Hama hospitals because of power outages," adding that "all hospitals are equipped with power generators."

The ministry added that the systematic misleading campaigns will increase the determination of national health institutions in serving all patients.

In another account Thursday, the Local Coordination Committees, a group of opposition activists that document the anti-regime movement, placed the number of the killed people Thursday as many as 40 across Syria.

Activists reported heavy shelling by the Syrian army on restive Homs over the past 20 days that left many civilians killed, including two foreign journalists who were killed Wednesday in the Baba Amr neighborhood, the epicenter of violence in Homs.

Meanwhile, a panel of UN human rights experts in Geneva said the United Nations has a secret list of top Syrian officials who could face investigation for crimes against humanity.

The Syrian government has blamed the unrest in Syria on plots by terrorists and foreign-backed armed gangs, and said more than 2, 000 army and security personnel were killed during the past months, while the opposition accuses the government of attacking protesters.

The United Nations put the death toll in the Syrian unrest at around 6,000.