Syria: At least 25 killed in Deraa
Syrian Observatory for Human Rights claims victims include women, children; explosions heard in Damascus after fierce fighting between rebels, Assad's forces
Twenty five people, including 10 women, were killed overnight Saturday and 90 more injured from shelling in the southern Syrian town of Deraa, where the uprising against President Bashar Assad erupted 15 months ago, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
The group, which monitors violence in Syria through a network of sources inside the country, reported fighting in the town between the army and rebels after the shelling.
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Al Arabiya network reported that one man lost his entire family in the carnage. The man, shown in a video uploaded to the web next to the bodies of his wife and children, asked for revenge.
Meanwhile, opposition groups reported a shortage in medicine and blood units, urging Syrian citizens to donate blood.
Father loses entire family in massacre
Eyewitnesses told CNN Network that many women and children were among the casualties. "A few doctors were arrested so that they would not be able to treat the wounded," said one activist.
In the capital Damascus, which was once relatively secure from the unrest, it said explosions were heard on Saturday after some of the fiercest fighting between rebels and security forces loyal to Assad. The main road south from Damascus to Deraa was blocked by burning tyres, it said.
Wounded people treated in makeshift hospital inside mosque
In addition to the deaths in Deraa, the Observatory said 44 civilians were killed across the country Friday, nearly half of them in the central province of Homs and in Damascus districts and suburbs.
Twenty-five soldiers were also killed Friday, it said, in the provinces of Idlib, Damascus, Deir al-Zor, Homs and Deraa.
Also on Friday, UN monitors visited the site where 78 people were reported massacred two days earlier, saying the smell of burnt flesh hung in the air and body parts lay scattered around the deserted Syrian hamlet of Mazraat al-Qubeir.
Meanwile, a British journalist claimed Friday that Syrian rebels set him up to die in a no man's land near the Lebanese border, saying he believes they hoped he would be shot by government forces.
Channel 4 News's chief correspondent Alex Thomson said in a blog post Friday that a rebel escort led him, his driver, and his translator to a dead end in "free-fire zone" around the town of Qusair. He says it was "quite clear the rebels deliberately set us up to be shot by the Syrian Army."
Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report
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