Saudi Arabia and Qatar are backing "armed terrorist gangs" operating in Syria and so are responsible for the bloodshed in the country.

Saudi Arabia and Qatar are backing "armed terrorist gangs" operating in Syria and so are responsible for the bloodshed in the country, Information Minister Adnan Mahmoud told AFP on Monday.

"Some of the countries backing armed terrorist gangs, such as Saudi Arabia and Qatar, are accomplices to the terrorism targeting the Syrian people... and bear responsibility for the bloodletting," he said.

Mahmoud accused the "terrorist gangs" of massacring women and children in the restive central city of Homs at the weekend to stoke an international outcry against the Damascus regime.

"Terrorist gangs carried out the most horrible massacre in the Karm az-Zaytoun neighborhood of Homs... in order to incite international reaction against Syria," he stated.

Syrian state media acknowledged that residents of the central city had been murdered and attributed the deaths to "armed terrorist gangs.