NICOSIA - Mortar fire killed 105 people and left hundreds more injured in a "massacre" in the central Syrian city of Homs late Friday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

The group said the mortar fire had hit the Al Khalidiya district of Homs, which has become a flashpoint of the 10-month revolt against the regime of President Bashar al-Assad.

"It's a real massacre," the observatory's director Rami Abderrahman told AFP, calling for the "immediate intervention" of the Arab League to end the killing.

The Al Jazeera and Al-Arabiya television channels showed images of dozens of bodies on the ground.

Earlier Friday, thousands of Syrians protested throughout the country, notably in Damascus, to mark the 30th anniversary of the massacre in central Hama in which thousands died when regime forces opened fire to disperse a protest.

News of the latest deaths came as a diplomat in New York said members of the UN Security Council would meet Saturday morning for a vote on a resolution condemning the violent repression in Syria.

The text is the same as a draft resolution sent to the council's 15 members on Thursday.

It highlights the UN body's support for an Arab League plan for a democratic transition while leaving out explicit references to calls for Assad to step down, the diplomat said Friday.