The attacks occurred a day after a U.N.-Arab League
...an organization of Arabic-speaking states with 22 member countries and four observers. The League tries to achieve Arab consensus on issues, which usually leaves them doing nothing but a bit of grimacing and mustache cursing...
peace plan was scheduled to enter into effect, but envoy Kofi Annan
...Ghanaian diplomat who served as the seventh and so far the worst Secretary-General of the UN. Annan and the UN were the co-recipients of the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize for something or other that probably sounded good at the time. In December 2004, reports surfaced that Kofi's son Kojo received payments from the Swiss company Cotecna, which had won a lucrative contract under the UN Oil-for-Food Program. Kofi Annan called for an investigation to look into the allegations, which stirred up the expected cesspool but couldn't seem to come up with enough evidence to indict Kofi himself, or even Kojo...said Wednesday there was still a chance to salvage his bid to end hostilities within another 24 hours.
Forces loyal to Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir
Pencilneckal-Assad
Oppressor of the Syrians and the Lebs...
shelled and fired powerful guns at the old quarter of Khaldiyeh, as well as Juret al-Shayah and Qarabeed, in the central city of Homs, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Three people were killed in the attacks, the Britannia-based monitoring group said.
Activist Khaled al-Talawi, speaking to Agence La Belle France Presse from the Homs neighborhood of Bab Sbaa, said shelling "resumed on Wednesday morning with artillery and mortars."
Also in the province of Homs, three civilians, including a child and a woman, were killed in the town of Qusayr, near the border with Leb, the Observatory said.
Two civilians were also rubbed out as security forces launched raids in search for wanted snuffies in the town of Qurayyah, in the eastern province of Deir Ezzor, the Observatory said.
Regime forces also launched raids in the southern province of Daraa, the cradle of the popular uprising against the Assad regime that began more than a year ago.
Troops deployed in Maaraba after arriving in dozens of buses and personnel carriers, while gunfire was heard across the village, the Observatory said, adding security forces also raided the village of Ankhal.
The activist group, the Local Coordination Committees, said helicopters hovered over several suburbs of Damascus
...Capital of the last overtly fascist regime in the world...
The Observatory said that military checkpoints were reinforced in Harasta, on the capital's outskirts.
It also said that five people were incarcerated during raids in the central province of Hama.
Speaking from Hama activist Abu Ghazi told AFP that security forces stormed the city of Halfaya where it "incarcerated people at random."
The army also shelled the area of Jabal al-Akrad, in the coastal province of Latakia, the Observatory said.
In the northern province of Aleppo
...For centuries, Aleppo was Greater Syria's largest city and the Ottoman Empire's third, after Constantinople and Cairo. Although relatively close to Damascus in distance, Aleppans regard Damascenes as country cousins...
, regime forces continued shelling the town of Marea and neighboring villages, for the second consecutive day, according to activist Mohammed al-Halabi.
"Regime forces hit one town after the other. It started with Andan and Haraytan, then moved to Mang and Aazaz, and then to Tal Rifaat, and now Marea," he said.
At least 99 people, including 66 civilians, were killed across Syria on Tuesday, the Observatory and the LCC said.
Syria's government had said Tuesday it was abiding by the plan to withdraw its forces, but Annan accused it of pulling troops from some areas and moving them elsewhere.