At Least 7 Dead, Syria Army Goes on Offensive
Regime forces went on the offensive against rebels on Tuesday, seizing a town in the central province of Hama, as at least seven people including an army colonel were killed in violence across Syria, monitors said.
After three days of bombardment, troops and pro-regime militiamen backed by tanks and armored cars entered Kfar Zita, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, adding that rebel fighters had withdrawn.
Militiamen looted homes and shops after town residents fled, the NGO said.
It said four civilians were killed overnight in a "huge military operation" in the Kfar Oweid area of Idlib, a province bordering Turkey that is a stronghold of rebel forces.
The foes also clashed in several other areas of the province in northwest Syria, said the Britain-based Observatory.
The monitoring group said districts of the flashpoint city of Homs, also north of Damascus, came under artillery fire "as part of a campaign by regular forces to destroy them completely."
In Latakia on the Mediterranean, two rebel fighters were killed in an attack by regime troops on the town of al-Hafa, the group said. It said one of those killed was an officer who had defected from the regular army to join insurgents.
"Clashes in and around al-Hafa are ongoing, and regime forces are attacking the town with heavy machinegun fire and mortar shells," the Observatory's head Rami Abdel Rahman told Agence France Presse.
The watchdog said gunmen assassinated an army colonel in front of his home in the eastern city of Deir al-Zour.
The Syrian state news agency SANA said "terrorist groups" killed three army officers on Tuesday. Two were gunned down in Deir al-Zour and another died when his car blew up near the Barzeh district of Damascus, it said.
At least 38 people were killed in violence across the country on Monday, including at least 18 civilians, the Observatory said, adding that huge anti-regime protests were held at night in several provinces.
In Aleppo, Syria's commercial hub and once a regime bastion, demonstrators chanted: "Revolution of dignity and freedom!" Thousands waved independence flags and sang revolutionary chants, according to amateur video posted on YouTube.
In Damascus suburbs, protesters with covered faces chanted: "God protect the (rebel) Free Syrian Army!"
Source: Agence France Presse
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