BEIRUT (AP) — Activists say more than 40 civilians have been killed in violence around Syria today, not counting any casualties in Damascus.
The capital is seeing some of the heaviest violence yet since the uprising against President Bashar Assad's regime began in March 2011. Residents of Damascus describe bullets and shrapnel shells smashing into homes overnight. Rebels armed mainly with assault rifles fought Syrian forces for nearly 12 hours.
U.N. observers took video of the scene and say rebels fired a rocket-propelled grenade at the local power plant, damaging parts of it and charring six buses. An activist says Syrian forces fired at least three tank shells into residential areas in central Damascus.
The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says those killed today included 20 people, including nine women and children, who died in heavy, pre-dawn shelling in the southern city of Daraa. Thousands of Daraa residents turned out to bury the victims.
Government troops also carried out raids and shelled neighborhoods in the central city of Homs.
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APPHOTO CAI805: This image made from video released by UNSMIS, the UN observer mission in Syria and accessed Saturday, June 9, 2012, purports to show destroyed buses after overnight fighting in Damascus, Syria. In Damascus, residents spoke about a night of shooting and explosions in the worst violence Syria's capital has seen since the uprising against President Bashar Assad's regime began 15 months ago.(AP Photo/UNSMIS via AP video) THE ASSOCIATED PRESS CANNOT INDEPENDENTLY VERIFY THE CONTENT, DATE, LOCATION OR AUTHENTICITY OF THIS MATERIAL (9 Jun 2012)
<<APPHOTO CAI805 (06/09/12)>>
APPHOTO CAI807: This image made from video released by UNSMIS, the UN observer mission in Syria and accessed Saturday, June 9, 2012, purports to show a UN observer near a destroyed bus after overnight fighting in Damascus, Syria. In Damascus, residents spoke about a night of shooting and explosions in the worst violence Syria's capital has seen since the uprising against President Bashar Assad's regime began 15 months ago.(AP Photo/UNSMIS via AP video) (9 Jun 2012)
<<APPHOTO CAI807 (06/09/12)>>
