Dubai Syrian forces launched a wave of deadly air and ground attacks on northern Syria and Damascus Tuesday pounding the towns of Marea and Tall Rifaat to the north, killing nine civilians, among them two women and two children.
Government forces also stormed a rebel-held town outside Damascus Tuesday after days of fierce fighting, killing at least 23 fighters, an activist group and a rebel spokesman said.
“The army bombarded rebel weapons stocks in the Aleppo region to prevent the arms from reaching them [in the city],” a Syrian security official was quoted as saying.
“Reinforcements from both sides are heading to Aleppo. It is a war that will last a long time.”
Aleppo, the main northern city which lies near the Turkish border, has become the main battleground of the conflict since fighting erupted there a month ago and the regime has warned of a “mother of all battles” to recapture it.
In Marea mourners joined a funeral procession for a 20-year-old man they said was killed when a fighter jet fired on his home.
There were also reports of heavy artillery shelling from tanks southwest of Damascus and warplanes and helicopters were strafing nearby suburbs. Troops also stormed a town near Damascus, torching homes and shops, the the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
Tuesday’s violence followed a bloody day in which 167 people were killed nationwide, the Observatory said.
Syria’s popular uprising has spiralled into an all-out armed conflict between rebel fighters and regime forces with more than 23,000 people killed, according to the Observatory. The United Nations puts the death toll at 17,000.
More than one million Syrians have been displaced within Syria and up to 2.5 million are in need of aid, according to the United Nations.
Earlier, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov warned the West against any unilateral action on Syria after President Barack Obama said US forces could act if the Syrian leader deployed chemical weapons against rebels trying to topple him.
Lavrov met China’s top diplomat and a Syrian government delegation in what appeared to be a push to keep diplomacy going at a time when fewer Western and Arab governments believe that a UN-backed peace plan can end the violence.
Russia and China have opposed military intervention in Syria throughout 17 months of bloodshed and have vetoed three Security Council resolutions backed by Western and Arab states that would have raised pressure on Damascus to end violence.
Lavrov spoke at a meeting with China’s State Councillor Dai Bingguo one day after Obama, in some of his strongest language yet, said US forces could move against Al Assad if he resorted to chemical weapons against insurgents.
Russia and China base their diplomatic cooperation on “the need to strictly adhere to the norms of international law and the principles contained in the UN Charter, and not to allow their violation”, Lavrov said at the meeting with Dai.
“I think this is the only correct path in today’s conditions,” Lavrov told Dai, who also met President Vladimir Putin and his top security adviser, Nikolai Patrushev, on Monday for consultations that went unannounced by the Kremlin.
Obama said on Monday he had refrained “at this point” from ordering military engagement in Syria. But when asked whether he might deploy forces, for example to secure Syrian chemical and biological weapons, he said his view could change.
Russia has also expressed concern about Syria chemical weapons, saying it had told Damascus that even the threat to use them was unacceptable.
But Lavrov said on Monday that the Security Council alone could authorise the use of external force against Syria, warning against imposing “democracy by bombs”.
