ALEPPO (AFP/Reuters) - Syrian forces launched a deadly assault in the southwestern belt of Damascus on Saturday, in what activists said was a new bid to crush “once and for all” the insurgency in the capital.
Combat helicopters and tanks also pounded rebel-held areas of the battered Aleppo.
The fresh violence erupted a day after new international envoy Lakhdar Brahimi admitted he was “scared” of the enormity of the task he faces to try to end the increasingly ferocious conflict, now in its 18th month.
In the latest string of such cases, dozens of bodies were found in the town of Daraya, southwest of Damascus, where troops have been waging a fierce assault against rebel holdouts, a monitoring group said on Saturday. And at least 15 civilians, including two women and three children, were killed in gunfire and summary executions in Daraya.
Meanwhile, the body of a veteran Japanese war reporter, Mika Yamamoto, 45, killed this week during a gunfight in Aleppo was flown home on Saturday.
An American, a Turk and a Jordanian journalist of Palestinian origin are still missing.
August is already the deadliest single month of the conflict with over 4,000 people killed, according to the Observatory, which reported at least 75 people killed nationwide on Saturday.
A troubled UN observer mission also wrapped up last week and the team’s chief, Senegalese General Babacar Gaye, left Damascus on Saturday.
An Iranian delegation was in Damascus on Saturday for talks with Syrian officials, a day after Tehran - the regime’s staunchest ally - said it would submit a plan for ending the conflict at a Non-Aligned Movement summit next week.
The head of the intelligence unit of Iran’s elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said Iran has a responsibility to support the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad as it fights an armed uprising.
Switzerland pledged financial support to an independent network of doctors in Syria who are trying to create a field hospital in the conflict-torn nation.