DAMASCUS
At least 95 people, including 12 children and 6 women, were killed in attacks staged by the Syrian regime with heavy weaponry in several cities across the country on Saturday, opposition activists said.
Syrian regime forces killed 49 in Homs, 13 in the suburbs of capital Damascus, eight each in Hama and Idlib, seven each in Aleppo and Daraa, and three in Deir-ez Zor in air and land offensives across the country, according to a statement by the Syrian Network of Human Rights (SNHR), a London-based group which tracks civilian and dissident casualties.
SNHR noted that Syrian army helicopters dropped nine "barrel bombs" on Darayya suburbs of Damascus, resulting in deaths and casualties and demolishing homes, with reports of heavy smoke rising from the region.
SNHR also said Assad forces launched heavy weapon attacks in al-Vaer region of the opposition-held Homs province, setting afire several homes, shops and vehicles.
The London-based human rights group stated that the regime forces also mounted rocket, howitzer and and missile attacks on opposition-held areas of Homs.
The statement further reported heavy clashes between the militant group Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and the Free Syrian Army (FSA) forces in Idlib's Darkoush neighbourhood, adding that a bomb-laden vehicle exploded in Masakin Hananu area of Aleppo.
On the other hand, Syrian official news agency SANA announced that Syrian regime forces launched operations across the country, killing a large number of armed dissidents and destroying their vehicles.
The Syrian Revolution General Council (SRGC) said in a statement that Syrian air forces bombed Duma district in the suburbs of Damascus and many people were reported killed and wounded.
Meanwhile, the SNHR said the death toll among children had exceeded 12,000 since clashes broke out in Syria in March, 2011.
More than 100,000 people have been killed in almost three years of conflict in Syria and over two million Syrians are now registered as refugees in neighboring countries, Turkey, Lebanon and Iraq, according to the UN.
The Microfinance Program Director at the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), Alex Pollock, said that the total cost of the Syria crisis had reached $103.1 billion by the first half of 2013.
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