Seventeen people, including 10 women, were killed overnight by shelling in the Syrian town of Deraa, where the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad erupted 15 months ago, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
Syrian army helicopter fired machinegun rounds and troops shelled rebel positions in Aleppo on Saturday, a witness said, as they tried to break through the insurgents' frontline in a battleground district in the country's largest city.
At least 11 people were killed in fierce fighting that broke out in a Damascus suburb today when Syrian forces mounted an armoured attack to try and regain the area from rebels, opposition activists said.