ALEPPO (AFP/Reuters) - The Syrian army pressed its assault on rebels in commercial capital Aleppo on Sunday, while both sides reported atrocities and Arab foreign ministers postponed a planned meeting on the 17-month conflict.
The exiled opposition said pro-government militia had executed 10 civilians in a roundup in the flashpoint central city of Homs, while the official SANA news agency reported the murder of one of its staff, in the latest case of a pro-government journalist being killed.
Deputy Arab League chief Ahmed Ben Helli told Reuters the planned meeting, that had been due to discuss a replacement for international envoy Kofi Annan, was delayed because of a minor operation undergone by Saudi Arabian Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal.
 In Aleppo, troops shelled rebel-held districts as fighting flared anew around a southwestern neighbourhood that rebel fighters had quit last week, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
The Shaar, Tariq al-Bab, Sakhur, Hanano and Bustan al-Qasr neighbourhoods all came under bombardment, as the army pressed a ground offensive it launched on Wednesday to recapture areas seized by rebels since July 20, the group said.
The Britain-based monitoring group also said that “communications of all forms have been cut off in the city of Aleppo as well as large areas of the province since the morning.”
The Observatory said at least 27 people were killed across the country on Sunday: 15 civilians, seven soldiers and five rebels.
In Damascus, gunfire was reported in the Qadam neighbourhood. Outside the capital, machinegun fire was heard in the town of Al-Tal, where 15 civilians were killed in shelling and clashes the previous day.
They were among 148 people - 85 civilians, 43 soldiers and 20 rebels - killed across Syria on Saturday, according to the Observatory.
The official SANA news agency said the head of its home news department, Abbas Ali, was assassinated by an “armed terrorist group” at his home in Jdaidet Artuz outside the capital on Saturday evening.
Rebels fighting to oust President Bashar al-Assad need the protection of foreign-guarded no-fly zones and safe havens near the borders with Jordan and Turkey, a Syrian opposition leader said on Sunday.
Abdelbasset Sida, head of the Syrian National Council, said the United States had realized that the absence of a no-fly zone to counter Assad’s air superiority hindered rebel movements.
As speculation mounted over who will succeed Annan when he steps down as international envoy later this month, UN chief Ban Ki-moon called for a “flexible UN presence in Syria” even after the mandate of the troubled observer mission he set up expires. The observer mission mandate is set to expire August 19, after the Security Council voted last month to extend it for a “final” 30 days.
The mission - originally 300 military observers and now reduced by half - was deployed in April to oversee a peace plan, which should have begun with a ceasefire that never took hold.
In mid-June, the observers suspended patrols as fighting intensified. The Security Council is scheduled to debate the future of the UN mission on Thursday.