Damascus: At least 38 people, most of them civilians, were killed when fierce clashes between Syrian government forces and rebel fighters erupted on Thursday in Duma, near the capital Damascus, while violence also raged in other parts of the strife-torn country,media reported on Thursday.
According to reports in Central Homs province, army bombards the town of Rastan which killed four civilians, including two children.
In Homs city itself, eight regime forces were killed and dozens wounded in fighting with rebel forces on the outskirts of the Deir Baalaba neighbourhood, the Britain-based monitoring group said.
Four civilians were also killed in Homs city, including three stabbed by Shabiha pro-regime militia, the Observatory added.
Separately, regime troops backed by tanks stormed Douma, near Damascus, at dawn amid heavy gunfire and shelling.
Clashes between soldiers and rebel forces were reported in various parts of Douma, some 13 kilometers (seven miles) northeast of the capital, with a civilian killed by sniper fire, the Observatory said.
Plumes of smoke could be seen near the city’s main mosque as troop reinforcements were sent in.
Two young men were killed in Kfar Sousa, a neighborhood of Damascus early on Thursday when security forces opened fire on their car.
In the embattled northwestern province of Idlib, meanwhile, at least eight civilians were killed, along with six regime forces, the Observatory said.
Clashes were also reported in several towns in nearby Aleppo province, including Andan and Hritan, where messages on loudspeakers urged regime troops to defect and join the opposition.
Five soldiers were killed in two separate attacks there and in southern Daraa, cradle of the revolt that broke out in March last year against President Bashar al-Assad’s regime, the Observatory said.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said regime troops backed by tanks stormed Duma at dawn amid heavy gunfire and shelling.
Violence across the country has left hundreds of people dead so far this week despite a pledge by President Bashar al-Assad to implement a peace plan brokered by U.N.-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan.
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