BEIRUT: Former Prime Minister Saad Hariri Friday slammed Syrian President Bashar Assad over a new massacre against civilians committed by regime forces in the village of Tremseh in Hama province.

“The new brutal massacre committed by the Syrian regime [Thursday] in Tremseh, Hama, set a new record in terms of crimes against humanity and unarmed civilians of the Syrian people,” Hariri said in a statement released by his media office in Beirut.

“This new massacre leaves no room for any hesitation by the Arab and international community to confront Bashar Assad and his killer regime which sinks day after day in the blood of the innocent and heroic Syrian people,” Hariri said.

The head of the opposition Future Movement added that the Assad regime has become “a disgrace and a landmark in suppression and crimes unprecedented in our modern Arab history.”

Opposition activists claim that more than 150 people were killed by Syrian shelling in Tremseh Thursday.

Hariri called on Arab and world governments as well as the U.N. Security Council, the Arab League and the Islamic Cooperation Organization to take “firm, quick and practical measures to protect the Syrian people, impose the most effective sanctions on the tyrant’s regime and undo the brutal killing machine he is using against the Syrian people.”

Hariri’s Future Movement and its allies in the opposition March 14 coalition staunchly support the 16-month popular uprising against the Assad regime.