( CNN ) -- The Organization of Islamic Cooperation suspended Syria Wednesday from membership . `` There is a strong concern over the massacres and the inhumane acts that are being committed against the Syrian people , '' said Nizar bin Obaid Madani , Saudi Arabia 's state minister for foreign affairs . `` Therefore , the leaders agreed on the importance of preserving the unity of Syria , the immediate end of all acts of violence and the suspension of Syrian membership within OIC , '' the minister said after a two-day summit of OIC heads of state . Syria violence fuels kidnapping threats in Lebanon . Iran and Algeria were the sole opponents in the 57-nation body , which represents 1.5 billion Muslims . The organization 's move sends a message to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad that its members will not accept the regime killing its people , OIC Secretary-General Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu told CNN . He also called on the U.N. Security Council to approve tougher resolutions against the regime . Asked if OIC members supported military intervention , Ihsanoglu said he heard few such calls . U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland commended the move . `` Today 's action underscores the Assad regime 's increasing international isolation and the widespread support for the Syrian people and their struggle for a democratic state that represents their aspirations and respects their human rights , '' she said in a statement . The development came as would-be rescuers searched for survivors amid the rubble left after Syrian government forces shelled a town in Aleppo province near the border with Turkey , killing 40 people , a spokesman for the rebel Syrian National Council told CNN . `` We have no special equipment to search or lift the wreckage , '' said the spokesman , Abu Omar , by Skype from the province . `` People are doing it using their bare hands and rudimentary tools . '' Another 40 people in the town of Azzaz were missing after the shelling , which targeted a popular food market , Omar said . Among the dead were four Lebanese hostages who had been taken by an armed group called `` the revolutionaries of Aleppo '' that is not affiliated with the Free Syrian Army , he said . He described the victims as civilians , including women and children , and said the town was without electricity . The attack came after government had warned members of the al-Tawheed Brigade , the main rebel group fighting in the city of Aleppo , to pull its fighters out of the city or face shelling from warplanes , Omar said . Inside Aleppo , Syria 's largest city , the rebels `` continued clashes today with the regime forces in Salaheddine district '' and Bab el-Nasr neighborhood , killing a rebel commander , he added . Opinion : To save Syria , work on Russia , Iran . Meanwhile , a United Nations commission concluded Wednesday that both Syrian regime forces and anti-government rebels have committed war crimes in the Syrian conflict . The U.N . Independent International Commission of Inquiry said government forces and their Shabiha militia allies committed crimes against humanity such as `` murder and torture , war crimes and gross violations of international human rights and humanitarian law , including unlawful killing , indiscriminate attacks against civilian populations and acts of sexual violence . '' For Syria 's neighbors , impact is growing with each refugee . In the town of Houla on May 25 , the commission said , al-Assad 's forces and militia allies were responsible for killing more than 100 civilians , nearly half of them children . The anti-government armed groups that have emerged over the past year also have committed war crimes , including `` murder , extrajudicial killings and torture , '' the report says . But the commission says these actions `` were not of the same gravity , frequency and scale as the ones perpetrated by government forces and the militia . '' Since February 15 , the report says , `` the situation in the country has deteriorated significantly with armed violence spreading to new areas and active hostilities raging between rebels and the government and the militias . '' The violence continued Wednesday , with at least 205 people killed , the opposition Local Coordination Committees of Syria said . Ninety of them were in Aleppo province , and most of them were in Azzaz , a town near the Turkish border that was shelled by regime warplanes . Opposition activists have put the death toll in the 17-month crisis at more than 20,000 . U.S. lifts sanctions on former Syrian prime minister . CNN 's Arwa Damon in Beirut , Amir Ahmed and Holly Yan in Atlanta , Ben Wedeman in Aleppo , Nic Robertson in Jeddah contributed to this report .
Organization of Islamic Cooperation suspends Syria . At least 40 are dead after warplanes shell a Syrian-Turkish border town . Fighting is raging near the Iranian Embassy in Damascus . Violations by rebel groups are less severe than those by the regime , a U.N. report says .