Prominent international war crimes experts say they have received a huge cache of photographs documenting the killing of 11,000 detainees by Syrian authorities.

SYRIAN president Bashar al-Assad has denied ordering the killing of thousands of protesters and said “only a crazy person” would target his own people, as global pressure mounted on his regime.

A government crackdown on two Syrian towns in the country’s centre and south killed at least 33 people, including an 11-year-old girl shot dead by troops during a fierce shelling, activists have said.