Syria Pounds Rebel Bastions

Syrian forces launched new air strikes and shelled rebel strongholds in several key cities on Saturday, a watchdog said, after the U.N. named a new envoy to try to end the conflict.

The intensified fighting, particularly in and around the key northern hub of Aleppo, has sent thousands more Syrians fleeing into neighboring countries as the divided international community appears powerless to act.

Warplanes bombed the town of Aazaz on Friday, just days after an air strike that flattened homes and killed at least 40 people, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Syrian forces also bombarded several areas of Aleppo, the northern commercial hub that has emerged as the main battleground as it is key for control of routes to Turkey -- the rear base for the rebel Free Syrian Army.

Fighting was reported in several districts of the city, the Observatory said, while regime forces also pounded rebel areas of the central city of Homs and the southern city of Herak.

It said a total of 129 people were killed in violence on Friday alone.

And in a grim sign of the escalating brutality of the conflict, the Observatory said dozens of bodies had been found dumped in several areas of Damascus province.

Opposition factions had reported that another 65 bodies had been found dumped on a rubbish tip in a town near Damascus on Thursday, claiming the victims had been bound, executed and set on fire by pro-government forces.

It is impossible to independently verify such claims as journalists are unable to report freely in Syria.

Government forces appear to be resorting to more attacks from the air against the more poorly armed and disparate rebel groups, while accounts of people being shot dead by snipers are increasing.

In a damning report this week, a U.N. panel said government forces and their militia allies had committed crimes against humanity including murder and torture, while also accusing the rebels of war crimes, but to a lesser extent.

And the conflict is creating an increasingly precarious humanitarian situation, triggering a major exodus of refugees that the .U.N said Friday had swelled to least 170,000, many of them fleeing to Turkey.

Assad's minority Alawite-led regime has faced a string of high-level defections, including by Prime Minister Riad Hijab and senior general Manaf Tlass, and a bomb attack that killed four top security chiefs.

The president has characterised the conflict as a battle against a foreign "terrorist" plot aided by the West and its allies in the region, led by Sunni Muslim powerhouse Saudi Arabia.