Syria: Scores Killed On Eve Of Planned Cease-Fire

Fierce fighting between Syrian army and rebels reported Monday, particularly in the provinces of Aleppo and Deir Ezzor. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), reported 31 dead, including 12 in members of the government forces. In addition, shots from Syria have killed at least two people and injured 15 others on the Turkish side of the border, according to an official source quoted by the Anatolia news agency.

These incidents took place on the eve of the scheduled cease-fire included in the peace plan of the Kofi Annan the International envoy to the Syrian crisis.

Monday’s violent clashes erupted in the village of al-Salama, near the Turkish border in the province of Aleppo. Elsewhere, six customs officers and members of the security forces were killed by rebels’ fire in as they managed to cross the Turkish side, said the SOHR.

Two police officers were killed in clashes with army deserters in Aleppo, the second largest city in the country as the army was shelling the neighboring towns of Tal Rifaat and of Mareh, sources said. These heavy fightings erupted in the night after soldiers fired on protesters, reported Mohamed al-Halabi, a militant on the spot reached by AFP. In the city of Hama, the regime forces were conducting searches, ransacked shops and houses of militants, according to Abu Ghazi al-Hamoui, a local opposition activist speaking via Skype.

In this region, military reinforcements arrived near Kafar Zita, fearing an assault, he added. A little further south, government forces pounded the city of Rastane, controlled for months by the deserters. To the east, the army attacked the town of Mouhsen, while fighting between soldiers and deserters were reported in the nearby village of Albouamr, according to SOHR.

In the southern province of Deraa, one civilian was killed by shooting near Seida and government forces have arrested at least 16 people in raids in Khirbet Ghazala, opposition source said. In the province of Damascus, a bomb exploded under a military vehicle, killing four soldiers, near the village of Kawkab, according to SOHR. And in the capital, security forces continued a campaign of raids and arrests in the district of Kfar Sousse, while armored vehicles were cutting the road between this neighborhood and Deraya, a suburb of the capital. In the past 48 hours, the violence across the country have left 180 dead.