In this image provided by the Syrian opposition’s Shaam News Network, a woman holds a child in front of their destroyed home in Tremseh, Syria, on July 14. The authenticity, content, location and date have not been independently verified.

26/07/2012

At least 100 people were killed earlier this month in a Syrian village called Tremseh. Activists called the deaths a massacre of innocent civilians by government forces, but later reports suggested it was something different. After spending a week with rebel fighters in the country, I discovered some previously untold details about the killings.

In the days after the deaths, the facts were fuzzy. Unlike with previous massacres, the activists didn’t release the names of the dead. Once some names did start trickling out, it looked like many of those killed were fighting-age men.

Destruction In Tremseh

On our way into Syria last week, we met a Spanish photographer named Daniel Leal Olivas. It was late at night at a rebel way station. He showed us gruesome pictures. He said he’d just returned from Tremseh, where he had been just a day after the killing.

“The first thing I remember is that it’s a very small town,” he says. “Another thing is everyone was in the street.”

Women and children were standing in front of their houses crying, as if they had just gotten back into town, Olivas says. The men grabbed him by the arm and dragged him into a house.

“We found a toilet room, and … that toilet room was full of blood,” he says. “They told us, ‘We found here bodies, executed,’ ” he says.

And, he says, parts of the village were destroyed.

“They burned a lot of cars. They burned motorcycles. They burned houses. They destroyed the mosque,” Olivas says.

But they didn’t burn indiscriminately, he says. Instead, it looked like the killers knew exactly what their targets were. On any given street, one house would be burned, riddled with bullet holes and covered in blood. Other houses were left untouched.

AP

This image provided by the Syrian opposition’s Shaam News Network shows a destroyed minaret of a mosque in Tremseh, Syria, on July 12. The authenticity, content, location and date have not been independently verified.

While Olivas’ account suggests that those who committed the killings were mostly targeting fighters, there’s still the question, what sparked this killing, and why was it so brutal?

At The Rebels’ Base

As we traveled deeper into Syria, we found rebel fighters who had some answers. We found our way to the steps of a house that’s used as a base for a rebel commander. I can’t say exactly where it is; the location is secret.

Abu Sleiman commands several units in a town right next to Tremseh. He provided weapons to two units based inside the village.

One fighter, who goes only by the name Khazzafi, was in a village near Tremseh on the day of the killing. He says the trouble started around 5 a.m.

Four officers in the Syrian army were driving near Tremseh. All of them were from the minority Alawite sect — the same sect as Syria’s president, Bashar Assad, and his inner circle.

Khazzafi says rebels blew up the car with a homemade bomb, instantly killing the Alawite officers. Then the army began bombarding the town with artillery, tanks and helicopters.

Khazzafi says the shelling continued until midafternoon. Then the army pulled back, and armed Alawite militias known as shabiha, or ghosts, moved in and went on a killing spree. Khazzafi says he was in the woods just outside the village, helping evacuate wounded. He says he heard this chilling phrase spoken with an Alawite accent: “He’s not dead yet. Finish him.”

If Khazzafi’s story is true, this would be the third major killing spree launched by pro-government Alawite militias in a Sunni village.

The Rise Of Sectarian Killings

For the first time, though, rebels are acknowledging that they played some role in sparking the attack. Still, they refuse to acknowledge that their very presence in these villages brings havoc on civilians.

The commander of this base says regardless of what caused the attack, the killing of a few officers does not justify hunting 100 people down and executing them in their village.

While many details from Tremseh remain unknown, it’s clear that sectarian killings are on the rise in Syria.

As Abu Sleiman and his fighters begin their nightly prayer, we can tell by the way they move their hands and position their feet that they aren’t Sunni hard-liners who consider all other sects to be infidels.

But to hear them talk is to hear them use nasty words about Alawites — and about how they hope to take revenge one day. That leaves many Syrians to wonder, even if the rebels do manage to topple the regime, what will come next?

(14/07/2012) #Syria: Kafr Nabel Sends Humanitarian Aid to Tremseh

The small town of Tremseh has suffered what may be the single worst atrocity of the Syrian uprising, say eyewitnesses

A video still said to be of a funeral for victims of the assault on the town of Tremseh. Photograph: AP

Residents of the battered Syrian town of Tremseh have described being chased from their homes and hunted down by regime forces after seven hours of shelling during a major assault that left more than 150 people dead last Thursday.

The first observers to reach the devastated town on Saturday described widespread scenes of destruction, and many residents appeared to be too traumatised to talk about their ordeal. The massacre in the small farming community of 6,000 to the north-west of Hama is being described as the worst single atrocity of the Syrian uprising.

Two eyewitnesses from Tremseh who spoke to the Observer blamed regime forces and the pro-regime militia, the Shabiha, for the attack, which has seen many of its residents flee and left more than 100 people missing. “We don’t understand why they attacked us,” said a local woman, Umm Khaled. “We haven’t brought harm to the region. All we’ve done here is hold demonstrations.”

Khaled, who had lived in Tremseh – a Sunni Muslim enclave – all her life, said people trying to flee through nearby fields were shot dead as they ran. She claims some of the bodies were taken away by regime forces and that others were handcuffed, then summarily executed.

Syria’s state news agency on Saturday released a detailed account of what it says took place in Tremseh, blaming the massacre on a “terrorist gang” of 200 to 300 men, which it claimed included foreign Arab fighters. It released names and photographs of four men it said had been ringleaders.

The two Tremseh residents strongly denied the regime’s claims that their town either supported, or had been subverted by, a terrorist group. Both insisted that the anti-regime guerrilla force, the Free Syria Army, did not have a strong presence in town.

“I swear that we don’t have any terrorists, Salafists, or anyone from the outside here,” said Khaled. “People have been terrified ever since [regime forces] came to the village in January and killed 40 of us. This time they stole from our homes, they robbed jewellery from women. All of this because we support the revolution?”

A second Tremseh resident, who wanted to be known only as Mohammed, said: “The bombardment started at 5.30am and ended at 2pm. The incursion started at midday from the north of the village. Shabiha and regime military men entered the village and occupied the roofs of high buildings and shot at anything moving.

“They shot many civilians in the head and then burned the bodies. They handcuffed civilians and then shot them in the head. They burned shops and houses with families inside. After what happened, the FSA [Free Syrian Army] members tried to get inside the village to help with burying the martyrs and tending to the wounded but they couldn’t.

“The criminals took many martyrs’ bodies and wounded civilians with them and there are many missing people and burnt dead bodies with no way to identify them.”

UN monitors who entered Tremseh on Saturday said the attack appeared to have been targeted on specific groups and houses, mainly of army defectors and activists. They described seeing bullet cases and blood pooled and spattered inside homes. A school was among several buildings burned.

The UN has said that its monitors in Syria witnessed helicopters and tanks shelling Tremseh on Thursday and said the Syrian air force took a lead role in the assault. The killings appear to have similarities to the massacre that took place in Houla in late May. Tremseh, like Houla, is located near a series of Alawite villages, which have largely remained loyal to Bashar al-Assad’s regime.

In a recent report on Houla, the UN said it could not say who was responsible for the massacre, which killed 108 people, but implied that regime forces and their backers had played a role. The two Tremseh witnesses who spoke to the Observer claimed that some of their attackers came from the direction of Alawite villages, which they named as Safsafeyeh, Tal Sikeen and Falha. “Relations between us and the Alawite villages were always peaceful but some of the Shabiha did come from there,” said Mohammed.

Umm Khaled said: “We had no problems with them for a long time, but now we fear them. We don’t want to go near their villages.”

The spectre of sectarian war is looming over the Syrian uprising, which is being led by the country’s Sunni majority. While Assad retains support from within the Sunni establishment, particularly the merchant class, there are signs that his Sunni backing is beginning to ebb. In the past fortnight a leading Sunni brigadier general and family friend of the Assads, Manaf Tlass as well as Syria’s ambassador to Iraq have defected. Assad’s support among the Alawite sect, from which the regime has historically drawn its key members, is thought to remain solid. Sections of Syria’s minority communities, including Christians, Druze and Kurds, are increasingly threatened by the uprising, which they believe has strong Islamist undertones.

Syria’s key ally, Russia, has denounced the massacre, but has not apportioned blame.

Additional reporting by Hala Kilani and Lubna Naji

DAMASCUS (AFP) - The Syrian village of Treimsa, where monitors say more than 150 people were slaughtered, bears signs of having been pounded with heavy weapons, the UN mission said on Saturday.

The homes of rebels and activists had borne the brunt, a statement added, referring to “pools and pools of blood spatters”.

Sausan Ghosheh, spokeswoman for the UN Supervision Mission in Syria, said a team of observers had visited the village in central Syria on Saturday.

“On the basis of this preliminary mission, UNSMIS can confirm that an attack, using a variety of weapons, took place in Treimsa on July 12,” she said in a statement, without specifying who may have carried out the attack.

Activists say more than 150 people were killed in Thursday’s attack, which they allege was carried out by the army, backed by pro-regime militiamen known as shabiha (“ghosts” in Arabic).

Syria’s military however said the army had killed “many terrorists” in Treimsa, but no civilians, in a “special operation… targeting armed terrorist groups and their leadership hide-outs.”

Ghosheh said a “wide range of weapons were used, including artillery, mortars and small arms.”

“The attack on Treimsa appeared targeted at specific groups and houses, mainly of army defectors and activists. There were pools of blood and blood spatters in rooms of several homes together with bullet cases.

“The UN team also observed a burned school and damaged houses with signs of internal burning in five of them.”

The number of casualties was still unclear, she added.

The Treimsa killings have triggered a global outcry against the regime of President Bashar al-Assad, with UN chief Ban Ki-moon calling for urgent action to stop the bloodshed.

The head of Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Rami Abdel Rahman, told AFP it “might be the biggest massacre committed in Syria since the start of the revolution” against Assad in March 2011.

If confirmed, the 150-plus toll would exceed that of a massacre at Houla on May 25, when a pro-Assad militia and government forces were accused of killing at least 108 people.

Ghosheh said the observers planned to return to Treimsa on Sunday for further investigations.

“UNSMIS is deeply concerned about the escalating level of violence in Syria and calls on the government to cease the use of heavy weapons on population centres and on the parties to put down their weapons and choose the path of non-violence for the welfare of the Syrian people who have suffered enough,” she said.

The Observatory said earlier that Syrian troops and pro-regime militias had stormed and torched a town in southern Syria on Saturday.

Hundreds of soldiers backed by helicopter gunships attacked Khirbet Ghazaleh in the province of Daraa — the cradle of a 16-month uprising — amid heavy gunfire, the watchdog said.

An activist on the ground who identified himself as Bayan Ahmad gave a similar account, saying pro-regime militias has set alight houses in the town.

“The army entered without resistance as the rebel Free Syrian Army left town. The shelling has wounded dozens of people but we don’t have medical resources to treat them,” he added.

Elsewhere, a pregnant woman was among 72 people killed across the country on Saturday, the Observatory said, a day after 118 people died including dozens of civilians gunned down by troops at anti-regime protests.

Those killed were 34 civilians — including nine women and seven children — 17 rebels and at least 21 soldiers, it said.

An AFP journalist said fighting Saturday near the Turkish border between government troops and rebel fighters had left at least 10 rebels dead and 15 wounded.

Treimsa is near Al-Kubeir, where at least 55 people were killed on July 6, according to the Observatory. Like Al-Kubeir, Treimsa is a majority Sunni village situated near Alawite hamlets.

Assad belongs to the Alawite community — an offshoot of Shiite Islam — although most Syrians are Sunni.

UN chief Ban Ki-moon lashed out at the Syrian regime and called for the UN Security Council to urgently act to stop the bloodshed, as failing to do so would give “a licence for further massacres.”

The Treimsa killings have added urgency to deadlocked Security Council negotiations on a Syria resolution.

The US ambassador to the United Nations, Susan Rice, said on Twitter that the killings “dramatically illustrate the need for binding measures on Syria” by the council.

Western nations have proposed a resolution that would impose sanctions on the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad over the conflict, which rights activists say has cost more than 17,000 lives.

Britain, France, the United States, Germany and Portugal have proposed a resolution that would give Assad 10 days to stop the use of heavy weapons, in line with the Annan plan, or face sanctions.

They also want to give the UN observer mission a new mandate, but for only 45 days. Their mandate ends on July 20.

Russia has rejected as unacceptable any use of sanctions. It is proposing a rival resolution that renews the mandate of UNSMIS for 90 days.

There was destruction everywhere and bodies under the rubble, witness says

Beirut: The villagers in Tremseh spent the first hours of the attack in darkness, listening to a massive artillery bombardment, then emerged after dawn to find the streets littered with corpses, reporters were told.

“It began at 4.30am when the first shells landed. I was sleeping and I woke up to the sounds of explosions,” said one resident, Abu Fares.

Power to the village had been cut the day before; all lights were out, mobile phone batteries had drained and landlines were cut. There was no calling for help. Abu Fares and the other residents stayed inside, crouching behind the most solid walls of their homes, and prayed.

“The shelling was too strong to go outside, we did not know what was happening there,” he said. “After some hours everything fell silent. I went outside. There was destruction everywhere and bodies under the rubble. Most of the houses were damaged or destroyed.” One of the video clips that emerged of Thursday morning’s events showed a young man wailing over the body of an elderly man wrapped in a blanket and lying in the street. “Come on, father. For the sake of God, get up,” the man sobs.

An explosion is heard in the background. There was no way to verify the provenance of the video, but by Friday morning activists, residents and Free Syrian Army fighters were claiming death tolls more than 220, most of them young men.

Another video purporting to be of one of the burials showed a shallow trench at least 20 metres long, wide enough for three bodies and lined with breeze blocks.

There are conflicting reports of what happened in Tremseh, a farming village about 35km north-west of the city of Hama. It has a population of about 10,000 people, predominantly Sunnis.Villages mostly inhabited by Alawites, the ruling minority Shiite heterodox sect, surround the town. As well as those killed by shelling, reports have emerged of men killed by gunshots fired at close range.

There were unconfirmed rumours that others had been hacked to death with knives; the government and opposition activists accused each other of summary executions following the initial shell attack. Whilst state television said that “armed terrorists” carried out the killings, referring to the rebel FSA, activists blamed the killings on paid government paramilitaries from the surrounding villages.

“The army surrounded the village with tanks and armoured personnel carriers from four sides and brought in busloads of soldiers,” said Ebrahim Al Hamwi, a member of the Hama Revolutionary Council, speaking from inside Tremseh. “I saw the Shabiha enter the city, they were entering houses and killed some men. They shot others in the street.” Mousab Al Azzawi, director of the London based Syrian Network for Human Rights, said people tried to flee along farm tracks.

“To the west, groups of Shabiha from the nearby village of Khafr Hod were waiting for them there. They had been expecting them to try and escape,” he added. “They dumped them in the dried banks of the Orontes River that runs through the farmland.”

Divided Security Council must send a strong message to all, he says

• AFP
• Published: 09:04 July 14, 2012

(13/07/2012) #Syria - Speech by Brigadier General Ahmed Barre in response to the Tremseh massacre (with translation):

RIP our martyrs , the  dignity and freedom martyrs.
Brave men, all the heroes  of  syria ..  the time for delays have expired. We should all be in a united field of action. The criminal corrupted regime has gotten deeper and deeper in killings and destruction. Its crimes  cover all of Syria and has extended to neighbouring countries, using  all kinds of murderous equipment:  aviation , artilleries, tanks and using the internationally prohibited, cluster weapons against unarmed civilians .
I appeal to the international community and say: enough delays, you  should  take a  decisive resolution  under  chapter  7  point  42  that allows  military  action and NFZ ,or leave us, and god will be with us.
countries that  are  supporting  the regime are the killers of our people, headed by Russia that is supporting the regime with weapons and international positions.
We say to the whole  world, aren’t these massacres enough ?! And finally, regarding the Treysseh massacre which was committed by (regime gangs) regime shabiha that resulted in the killing of innocent people, women and children .
We confirm  that FSA  wasn’t present in this  village, and if there would be anyone from the FSA, the regime  would not dare commit this massacre .
 I promise  all  people and the FSA, that we will avenge our martyrs  and our people  and you will see, god willing, what will relieve your hearts (  good news ) .
I  appeal  to my military brothers  who are standing in a foggy position, to act according to their conscience. The victims are their people. I ask, people who are abroad and inside syria to join the FSA. Enough of being afraid and hesitant.
We  confirm  to  our people  that we will have no mercy  for those who are killing our people no matter who they are.
 
 
 
Translated by: Syrian Freedom Livestream

Footage of regime forces and shabiha (pro-regime civilian gunmen) on the road out of Treimseh after the Treimseh… fb.me/BNnNcZgm

— Syrian Observatory (@syriahr) July 13, 2012

(13/072012) Qaboon, Damascus, #Syria: Standing in solidarity with Tremseh massacre

 (12/07/2012) #Syria: Al Jazeera - Al Tremseh massacre - Assad slaughters 200 innocent people

BEIRUT (AP) – Anti-regime activists in Syria said Friday that government gunners rained shells on a poor, farming village before armed thugs moved in, leaving scores of people dead in what rebel backers claim is one of the worse single days of bloodshed in the uprising against Bashar Assad’s regime.

The accounts — some of which claim more than 200 people were killed in the violence Thursday — could not be independently confirmed, but would mark the latest in a string of brutal offensives by Syrian forces attempting to crush the rebellion.

Much remains unclear about what happened in Tremseh in central Syria and why Assad’s troops moved against the isolated village. Amateur videos showed the bodies of 17 people said to have been killed. Local activists, who gave the high death toll, could not provide lists of names, saying they were still being compiled.

But the violence was certain to raise even more doubts about the fraying peace efforts of international envoy Kofi Annan, who said he was “shocked and appalled” by the reports of the attack. He criticized the government for using heavy weaponry in populated areas, a violation of his struggling peace plan meant to end Syria’s crisis.

One amateur video posted online late Thursday showed the dead bodies of 15 men lined up on a floor. Some are covered in blood and have wounds to their heads and chests. A second video shows a man’s body lying on a hospital gurney.

Yet another video showed a young man wailing over the body of an elderly grey-haired man wrapped in a blanket and lying in the street.

“Come on, Dad. For the sake of God, get up,” the man sobs. A boom is heard in the background.

For its part, the Syrian government said more than 50 people were killed when Syrian forces clashed with “armed gangs” that were terrorizing village residents. The regime has referred to those seeking its overthrow as terrorists throughout the 16-month uprising.

The killings in Tremseh, about 15 kilometers (nine miles) northwest of the central city of Hama, reflect the difficulty of getting reliable information on events inside Syria, a country of 22 million people that is about the size of North Dakota and closed to most journalists.

The killings will also likely fuel further debates between world powers that remain sharply divided on what to try next to stop Syria’s violence. All previous efforts, including Annan’s plan, have failed to quell the bloodshed.

Two activists reached Friday via Skype who said they were in villages near Tremseh gave similar accounts of the previous day’s events.

Bassel Darwish said the army surrounded the village early Thursday to prevent people from fleeing and pounded it until early afternoon with artillery and tank shells and missiles from a combat helicopter.

“We saw the events,” he said, adding that he was a few kilometers (miles) from the village. “Lots of people tried to get the families out but they weren’t able to.”

After the shelling, the army entered with pro-government thugs, known as shabiha, who gunned down and stabbed residents in the streets, he said.

Darwish said activists had compiled the names of about 200 dead, but he did not share the list. He said chaos reigned in the area as residents searched for the dead and missing.

Another activist, Abu Ghazi al-Hamwi, said local rebels, often called the Free Syrian Army, tried to fight off the army but couldn’t.

“They kept shelling the city and the weapons that the Free Army had were not enough to keep them out,” he said. “So they started trying to get out the wounded and the families by clashing in one place to open a way out.”

He, too, put the dead at more than 200, but did not provide a list of names. He said many of the dead were killed when a shell collapsed the roof of a mosque where they had sought shelter.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Friday that more than 160 people had been killed in Hama province, most of them in Tremseh, though it had the names of about 40 of them. It said dozens of the dead were rebel fighters and that the bodies of about 30 were totally burned. Others were stabbed.

Another video showed a tank in the street while large booms and gunfire are heard in the background. Activist claims and videos could not be independently verified.

The Syrian government gave a very different story of the Tremseh killing, with the state news agency saying that dozens of members of “armed terrorist groups” had raided the village and were randomly firing on residents.

Security forces clashed with the armed men, killing and capturing many of them, the report said. It said three soldiers and some 50 residents were killed.

The agency provided no photos or videos. Assad’s regime considers the country’s uprising to be the work of terrorists and extremists, not people seeking reform.

Activists say more than 17,000 people have been killed in the uprising, most of them civilians. The government says more than 4,000 members of the security forces have been killed. It does not provide numbers of civilian dead.

(CBS/AP) BEIRUT - Syrian activists reported a new massacre late Thursday in the central Hama province, saying regime forces killed more than 100 people in shelling and other attacks.

There were few details on the attack, which was reported by the Local Coordination Committees activist group and the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Some activists say the death toll is as high as 200 victims, Reuters reports.

The Observatory said it was aware of up to 100 killed from sources on the ground, but the group had only confirmed the names of 30 people so far.

Death tolls are nearly impossible to independently verify in Syria, where the government restricts journalists and where more than a year of violence has convulsed much of the country.

There were few details of the violence in Hama’s Tremseh area.

Activists say more than 17,000 people have been killed since the uprising against President Bashar Assad began in March 2011, and he is coming under growing international pressure to stop the violence. But as the bloodshed continues, and the conflict morphs into an armed insurgency, hopes for a peaceful transition are dimming.

The latest report of violence came in the wake of the highest-level defector yet from President Bashar Assad’s regime - his ambassador to Iraq.

Defections from the Syrian regime have stirred hopes in the West Assad’s inner circle will start abandoning him in greater numbers, hastening his downfall.

But the tightly protected regime has largely held together over the course of the 16-month-old uprising, driven by a mixture of fear and loyalty.

The latest official to flee, Ambassador Nawaf Fares, announced that he was joining the revolution, asserting Thursday that only force will drive Assad from power.

“There is no road map ever with Bashar Assad, because any plan, any statement that is agreed on internationally he delays on and ignores,” Fares told the Al-Jazeera satellite channel. “There is no way that he can be pushed from power without force, and the Syrian people realize this.”

Syria’s Foreign Ministry denounced Fares, saying he should face “legal and disciplinary accountability.”

In Washington, State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell hailed what he called the “first major diplomatic defection,” adding: “We think this a wider sign that the regime is feeling the pressure. The pressure is up and the regime is really starting to fall apart.”

Fares is the second prominent Syrian to break with the regime in less than a week. Brig. Gen. Manaf Tlass, an Assad confidant and son of a former defense minister, defected last week, but has not spoken publicly.

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said Tlass has been in contact with the Syrian opposition. He would not comment on reports that Tlass was in Paris.

“I know that there is some closeness between the opposition and the general… Contact has been made,” Fabius told journalists in Paris.

Assad’s regime has suffered a steady stream of low-level army defectors, who have joined a group of dissidents known as the Free Syrian Army, now numbering in the tens of thousands. There have been several high-level defections in the past - including a Syrian fighter pilot who flew his plane to neighboring Jordan during a training mission in June in a brazen move.

Although the defections are notable, Assad’s regime has remained remarkably airtight, particularly compared with the hemorrhaging of Moammar Gadhafi’s inner circle in Libya in 2011.

Within weeks of the Libyan revolt, a number of Libyan ambassadors and other high-ranking officials quit the government, and many joined the opposition leadership. The early defection of huge sections of the army in eastern Libya gave the rebel movement a safe zone where they could freely organize their political and military strategies.

Syria has seen nothing similar. Part of the reason is the loyalty of the armed forces.

Unlike the armies of Tunisia and Egypt, Syria’s military has stood fiercely by the country’s leader as Assad faces down an extraordinary protest movement.

Assad, and his father who ruled before him, stacked key military posts with members of their minority Alawite sect over the past 40 years, ensuring the loyalty of the armed forces by melding the fate of the army and the regime.

The army has a clear interest in protecting the regime because they fear revenge attacks and persecution should the country’s Sunni majority gain the upper hand.

But besides the military’s loyalty, another factor that constrains a flood of defections is fear. Open dissent is dangerous in Syria, a country that crushed any rumblings of defiance even before the popular revolt started to threaten the Assad family’s 40-year dynasty. The security forces, which are the backbone of the regime and drive the culture of fear and paranoia, will protect the leadership at all costs.

Defectors fear not only for their own lives, but for those of any family members left behind. When deputy oil minister Abdo Husameddine defected in March, he said in a video statement that he fully expected government forces to “burn my home” and “persecute my family.”

Already, the conflict is believed to have killed more than 17,000 people since the crisis began in March 2011, according to activists’ estimates. Although the revolt began with protests, it has morphed into an armed insurgency with scores of rebel groups across the country clashing with government troops and attacking their bases and convoys.

On Thursday, Syrian forces shelled the suburbs of the capital, Damascus, to flush the rebels out from areas where they have established a foothold. Troops pounded Mezzeh and Kafr Souseh in eastern Damascus with mortars, sending residents streaming out, activists said. They also targeted the Liwan, Qadam and Daraya neighborhoods from a nearby military airport.

Explosions could be heard though much of the capital and amateur videos posted online showed huge clouds of smoke rising from the targeted areas. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported three dead in the area, among more than 45 people killed across Syria on Thursday. At least 11 were government soldiers, it said.

The reports and videos could not be independently verified.

Also Thursday, Human Rights Watch said it had found evidence the Syrian government had fired cluster bombs in an area near the central city of Hama. The New York-based group said the munitions are clearly identifiable in amateur videos posted online, and that local activists said the area has been under government bombardment for weeks.

Cluster bombs explode in the air and drop dozens of “bomblets” over a large area, but these often do not explode on impact. They remain explosive, increasing the threat of later injury to civilians.

As the conflict grinds on, U.N. officials are growing more pessimistic over prospects for a diplomatic solution to the crisis, even though Assad’s main backers, Russia and China, have signed on to the idea of a transition to democracy in Syria.

Despite incremental progress, a senior U.N. official said the U.N. Security Council is deeply divided on Syria policy, with Western diplomats still uncertain whether Moscow is any closer to cutting its ties with the Syrian government or using its considerable leverage with Damascus to end the conflict on terms unfavorable to Assad.

With diplomacy near a standstill, the U.N. observer mission in Syria is serving as little more than a bridge between the United Nations and the Assad government, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss diplomatic maneuvering with media.