BEIRUT, July 7, 2012 (AFP) - Syrian regime forces bombarded a string of towns in Aleppo province on Saturday, as at least 60 people — 31 civilians, 19 soldiers and 10 rebels and deserters — were killed countrywide, monitors said.

In the eastern city of Deir Ezzor, seven members of one family were among 13 people killed in a bombardment by regime forces, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

In Aleppo, “regime forces are attempting to regain control over this region, where they have suffered heavy casualties over the past months,” the Britain-based watchdog said.

It said the bombardment killed one civilian and wounded dozens in the town of Qabtan al-Jabal.

“A large number of families have been displaced from the area for fear of shelling and lack of water, electricity and medical services,” it added of the attacks in the northern province.

Two rebels and five soldiers were killed near the town of Andan in clashes and an attack on an army vehicle.

Districts of the central city of Homs, under army bombardment for more than a month, were also being shelled on Saturday.

The Syrian General Revolutionary Authority said the shelling intensified through the night in the Old Homs neighbourhood and Hamidiyeh, where “many people were buried under the rubble” of a collapsed building.

Elsewhere in central Syria, three people were killed in a Hama village in indiscriminate shooting by regime forces, the Observatory reported.

In Damascus, regime forces clashed with rebels and stormed the neighbourhood of Barzeh, attempting to break a strike, while a taxi driver was shot dead in the same area.

The Local Coordination Committees, made up of anti-regime activists on the ground, reported general strikes in and around Damascus to honour those killed in the anti-regime uprising.

It said that “strikes in the souks of Medhat Pasha, Hareeqa and Hamidiyeh” were put down by regime troops who “broke the locks of the shops to force the owners to end the strike.”

Outside the capital, the Observatory reported one person killed in Tadamun by regime forces, who renewed shelling on the Damascus suburbs of Sayyida Zeinab and Harasta.

The Observatory said 93 people, mostly civilians, were killed across Syria on Friday as protesters took to the streets in several provinces after being urged to call for a “People’s liberation war.”

More than 16,500 people have been killed since the revolt against the regime of President Bashar al-Assad broke out in March of last year, according to the Observatory.

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