At least 65 people were found shot dead with their hands bound in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo yesterday in a new massacre in the near two-year revolt against president Bashar al-Assad, activists said.

Fighting raged near a military base in Syria’s north as a ceasefire in the bloody civil war was set begin on Friday at dawn, activists said, illustrating the difficulty of enforcing even a limited truce coinciding with a Muslim holiday.

The UN’s new envoy to Syria said today that president Bashar Assad’s regime should realise that the need for change is both “urgent” and “necessary” and that it must meet the “legitimate” demands of the Syrian people.