| ABC News | - |
Syrian state media and activists said 18 people were killed in Syria's
third largest city of Homs on Friday and reported that gunmen killed a
government official the night before in a restaurant in Mazzeh, a
western neighborhood in the capital, Damascus.
Fierce Battles in Syria; US to Raise Aid to Rebels
Troops loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad fought fierce battles with rebels on Friday near the Lebanese border as U.S. officials said the Obama administration was poised to announce millions more in non-lethal military aid to the Syrian opposition.
Syrian state media and activists said 18 people were killed in Syria's third largest city of Homs on Friday and reported that gunmen killed a government official the night before in a restaurant in Mazzeh, a western neighborhood in the capital, Damascus. The killing of Ali Ballan, head of public relations at the Ministry of Social Affairs and a member of Syria's relief agency, was the latest in a series of government and security officials, as well as regime supporters, who have been assassinated in the capital since the Syrian crisis began two years ago.
The state-run SANA news agency said "terrorists" opened fire on Ali Ballan while he was dining at the restaurant, killing him instantly. The government refers to opposition fighters as terrorists, denying there is an insurgency against Assad's regime.
Heavy fighting was reported near the contested town of Qusair in the central Syrian province of Homs, along the Lebanese border. On Thursday, government forces captured a town in the province and rebels seized a military base in the area. Eighteen people were killed on Friday in the shelling of Deir Baalba district on the eastern edge of the city of Homs, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
On Thursday, government forces captured the town of Abel, cutting off the road between Homs and Qusair, said Observatory director Rami Abdul-Rahman. He said the regime appeared to be trying to conduct a siege on Qusair. The Local Coordination Committees, another activist group, said Syrian army warplanes bombarded the area around Qusair on Friday.
Both activist groups also reported heavy clashes in Damascus's southern suburb of Daraya, which the regime has been trying to recapture for months. They also reported clashes in Aleppo, Idlib and Raqqa in the north and in the southern province of Daraa, where the uprising against Assad began.
In the country's east, there were reports of heavy fighting in the oil-rich Deir el-Zour province, with clashes between government troops and rebels concentrated on the airport in the outskirts of the provincial capital. There were no immediate reports on the casualties in the fighting.
Abdul-Rahman said rebels were attacking an army base near the town of Busra al-Harir in Daraa. A video aired on Al Arabiya TV showed rebels using a multiple rocket launcher, reportedly during the attack on Daraa base.
Syria's crisis began with largely peaceful protests against Assad's regime in March 2011 but eventually turned into a civil war. More than 70,000 people have been killed in the conflict so far, according to the United Nations. The Security Council has been deadlocked for months on the Syrian war, and even the most modest attempts to end the bloodshed have failed.
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