BBC News with John Jason

The Syrian President Bashar al-Assad says the current crisis in his country is a plot against the whole region, of which he said Syria was the cornerstone. Mr Assad's latest comment follows claims by opposition activists that government forces have

massacred

more than 300 people in Darayya near the capital Damascus. There's no independent confirmation of the claim. Barbara Plett reports from neighboring Lebanon.

The ground assault on Darayya started on Saturday morning after days of shelling. Troops searched house to house for rebels and, say activists, they left hundreds dead in their wake. One video released by opposition sources showed dozens of bodies of young men lined up in a mosque. Another showed a mass grave of more victims that included women and children. If the numbers are confirmed, said Britain's Foreign Office, this would be an

atrocity

on a new scale. But pro-government television made it sound like the soldiers had liberated the residents from terrorists, broadcasting interviews with residents who thanked the army for saving them.

The Libyan Interior Minister Fawzi Abdelali has submitted his resignation to the country's prime minister. He'd been criticized for failing to stop a series of attacks on Sufi Muslim holy sites. In the latest such incident, ultra-conservative Muslims on Saturday destroyed a Sufi mosque and shrine in the middle of the capital Tripoli. Police were accused of failing to