Security forces killed 126 people in Syria on Thursday, 107 of them in Homs in the latest government blitz on the besieged city, said Local Coordination Committees.Six people were killed in Maarat al-Naaman in Idlib, ten others in Reef Damascus
...Capital of the last remaining Baathist regime in the world...
, two in Ain al-Arab Koubani in 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...
, and one in Latakia.
Activists said that some of the Homs victims were burned beyond recognition.
"Twenty three people have died in the shelling that began at dawn on the Baba Amr neighborhood and one died in Khaldiyeh," said Rami Abdel Rahman of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
"The bodies of several of the victims in Baba Amr were completely charred," said the head of the Britannia-based group.
Abdel Rahman said the government assault on the central city, which began on Saturday, has left more than 400 people dead.
Ali Hazuri, a doctor in Baba Amr reached by telephone from Beirut, said the shelling had eased overnight but resumed at daybreak on Thursday.
"The shells are raining down on us and regime forces are using heavy artillery," he said.
Omar Shaker, an activist in Baba Amr also reached by phone, added that residents of the neighborhood were hiding on the ground floor of buildings as there were no underground shelters.
"When you venture outside, you can see craters every 10 meters (yards)," he said.