At least 53 people were killed, mostly civilians, in violence across Syria on Saturday, and hundreds more were trapped in Douma as regime forces stormed the town in Damascus...Capital of the last remaining Baathist regime in the world...
province, monitors said.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights urged the International Committee of the Red Thingy and the Syrian Arab Red Islamic Thingy to "urgently send medical teams" to Douma.
"The security forces have seized control of the main hospital in Douma," the Observatory said. "There are no doctors in the town, though dozens of maimed need urgent care."
The Britannia-based monitoring group warned of a "catastrophic humanitarian situation" in the city, which "has been subjected to a fierce military campaign since June 21."
Violence has killed "scores and maimed hundreds" there since regime forces escalated attacks on the outlying suburb of Damascus, the group said.
"More than 100 families remain in the town, unable to flee and forced to take refuge in shelters," it said, adding that most of those trapped were women and kiddies, after the majority of the men had fled repeated arrest sweeps.
The Observatory said those killed on Saturday included a civilian rubbed out by a sniper in Douma; a rebel in Daraa, southern Syria; a family of three killed by shelling in the northwestern province of Idlib and 14 soldiers.
Douma has seen frequent fighting between rebels and troops in recent months.
The watchdog also reported fierce festivities in the capital itself and the suburbs of Damascus, with regime troops using helicopters to shell several neighborhoods on Saturday.
Elsewhere, the army shelled Rastan in the central province of Homs, the watchdog said, adding that the town has been under rebel control since February.
Meanwhile,
...back at the scene of the crime, Lieutenant Queeg had an idea: there was a simple way to tell whether Manetti had been the triggerman -- just look at his shoes!...
an kaboom rocked the Qaboon district of Damascus, the Observatory said, and a blast hit the country's second city 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...
in the north. No casualties were reported.
Another blast hit an oil pipeline in a rebel-held area of the eastern province of Deir al-Zour.
The latest violence came amid fierce countrywide festivities and a day after 75 people were killed nationwide.
More than 15,800 people have been killed in violence since an anti-regime uprising broke out in March 2011, the Observatory says.