Damascus: Fierce clashes between regime forces and armed rebels in central Syria yesterday killed 23 Syrian soldiers and wounded dozens, a watchdog said, even as the EU slapped fresh sanctions on Damascus.
Also yesterday, Russia said it was "absolutely clear" that Al Qaida and its associates were behind twin bomb attacks in the Syrian capital last week that killed 55 people.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said three troop carriers were destroyed in clashes that began at dawn on the outskirts of Rastan, a rebel-held city located in the restive Homs province.
A lieutenant who had defected was also killed in the clashes.
Regime forces launched an offensive on the city at the weekend but have met with sharp resistance from rebels seeking the removal of President Bashar Al Assad's regime.
The Observatory said dozens had been wounded in shelling of the city by Syrian troops.
And in Quraya in the eastern province of Deir Ezzor, a 15-year-old boy was killed by machine gun fire as regime forces raided the town, the Britain-based watchdog said, bringing the total number of people killed yesterday to 25.
Popular revolt
The deadly unrest comes despite a month-old ceasefire brokered by UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan as part of a six-point plan aimed at ending violence that has swept Syria since March last year when a popular revolt erupted against Al Assad's regime.
Part of the plan includes the deployment in flashpoint areas of around 300 UN military observers. By Sunday, 189 observers were on the ground, the UN mission in Syria said. Despite the presence of the observers, more than 60 people were killed across Syria at the weekend in raids and shelling attacks by regime forces on rebel strongholds, and in clashes between soldiers and armed rebels, the Observatory said.
Syria-linked violence has also spilled across the border into Lebanon, with five people killed since Saturday during sectarian clashes in the northern port city of Tripoli, according to officials.
Fighting flared in Tripoli again yesterday leaving two people dead and 16 wounded, a security official said.
Travel ban
On the diplomatic front, EU foreign ministers meeting in Brussels yesterday slapped a 15th round of sanctions on Syria, due to the "appalling violence" there and discussed further support for Kofi Annan's peace plan.
The new European Union sanctions, to take effect today, mean 129 people and 43 firms or utilities are now targeted by an assets freeze and travel ban for backing the regime's 14-month campaign of relentless repression.
In some of the worst violence seen since the conflict erupted, twin suicide bombings in Damascus on Thursday killed 55 people and wounded 372.
The Syrian opposition insisted Al Assad's government carried out the devastating attacks. But Russia's foreign ministry pointed the finger of blame yesterday squarely at Islamist extremists.
"For us it is absolutely clear that terrorist groups are behind this — Al Qaida and those groups that work with Al Qaida," Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov told reporters.
