129 Dead in Syria as Warplanes, Artillery Pound Rebel Hubs

At least 129 people were killed across Syria on Friday as warplanes and artillery again pounded the northern hub of Aleppo and several other areas across the country, a watchdog said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said August is already the deadliest single month of the conflict with more than 4,000 people killed in barely three weeks, and an overall death toll of around 24,500.

In the day's bloodiest single attack, 21 people including 12 women and a child were killed in an air and artillery strike in the Deir Ezzor town of Mayadin that leveled at least one residential building, Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman told Agence France Presse.

Al-Ikhbariya, a government satellite channel, said security forces were "engaged in combat with an armed terrorist group in the Mayadin region, killing dozens of terrorists".

In all 129 people were killed nationwide, according to the Observatory, which has a network of activists, doctors and other sources on the ground.

It also reported heavy shelling on several districts of Aleppo, scene of the fiercest fighting since the conflict first entangled the commercial hub a month ago, as well as Daraa, the northwestern province of Idlib and Hama in the center.

The opposition Syrian National Council warned of a "humanitarian catastrophe" in the central city of Homs, saying it had been under siege for 80 days and was in desperate need of food and medical supplies.

Rebels said they were digging in for a war of attrition in Aleppo, where the regime had warned last month of "the mother of all battles".

"We don't have enough weapons, they (the Syrian army) don't have enough men," said one rebel fighter calling himself Abu Haidar.

Both the government and opposition forces say attacks on Aleppo province are aimed at cutting arms supply routes to the rebels in Syria's battered second city.

Rebels claimed earlier this week to control 60 percent of Aleppo but the regime has dismissed the claims and said Thursday the army had recaptured three Christian neighborhoods, where residents are largely pro-Assad.

Meanwhile, 50 unidentified bodies were found in the past 24 hours, mainly in Aleppo and Damascus, the Observatory said. Most were found with their hands bound and shot in the head.

Activists said troops stormed and shelled several areas south of Damascus, after two days of ferocious assaults on the southern outskirts that activists said was a renewed bid to crush the insurgency in the capital "once and for all".

The Local Coordination Committees, a local activist network, meanwhile said prominent Syrian film producer Orwa Nyrabia disappeared and was feared arrested.

American freelance journalist Austin Tice has also been missing for over a week, his latest employer the Washington Post said.