The Britannia-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said reports indicated that three troop carriers were destroyed in the festivities that began at dawn on the outskirts of the rebel-held city in Homs province, which U.N. observers had toured last month.
A lieutenant who had defected was also killed in the festivities, and random regime gunfire reportedly left two civilians dead in the city of Homs itself.
For its part, the Local Coordination Committees, the main activist group spurring protests on the ground, said security forces killed 11 civilians and three rebels.
It said nine people were killed in the central province of Homs, three in the eastern province of Deir Ezzor, one in the central province of Hama and one in Damascus
...The
City of Jasminis the oldest continuously-inhabited city in the world. It has not always been inhabited by the same set of fascisti...
' suburbs.
Regime forces launched an offensive on Rastan at the weekend but met with sharp resistance from rebels seeking the ouster of the regime of Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir
Pencilneckal-Assad
One of the last of the old-fashioned hereditary iron-fisted fascist dictators...
The Observatory said a child was killed and dozens maimed in shelling of the city by Syrian troops on Sunday. The bombardment by regime forces resumed following Monday's deadly festivities, it added.
"The regime forces in the course of two hours fired 300 rockets at Rastan before launching their assault," Sami Kurdi, the FSA front man for Homs province, told Agence La Belle France Presse from Rastan.
"The army tried to advance on the city at dawn but it met fierce resistance from FSA soldiers massed there," he added.
"The deserters like the residents of Rastan were on the alert, ready to do anything to prevent the regular troops from entering the town," because "people know what happens when the army enters a town that has revolted," Kurdi said.
Activists and NGOs have accused regime troops of repeatedly committing abuses in pro-rebel areas like Homs and Idlib.
The Observatory reported deadly violence elsewhere on Monday, with three civilians killed by regime forces' gunfire in southern Daraa province, including a child and a Paleostinian refugee.
And in Quraya in the eastern province of Deir Ezzor, a 15-year-old boy was killed by machinegun fire as regime forces raided the town, the Observatory said, bringing to at least 30 the number of people reportedly killed.
The watchdog added that 15 residents of the city were tossed in the slammer
Book 'im, Mahmoud!
In the capital Damascus, regime forces raided the neighborhood of Qaboon, while snipers were stationed on the roofs of some buildings.
The watchdog said 45 people -- 25 civilians, 15 soldiers and five rebels -- were killed in a surge of violence in various flashpoints on Sunday, despite a ceasefire brokered by 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 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...that was supposed to take effect on April 12.
Among the dead were a Shiite imam, Sheikh Abbas al-Laham, who leads the prayers in the Ruqayya mosque in Damascus, a revered place of pilgrimage for many religious Iranians. The holy man was assassinated by unidentified gunnies in Damascus, the Observatory said.