Violence flares as UN reports 189 observers in Syria

Clashes between Syrian anti-government protesters and security forces in Damascus At least 23 people were killed across Syria on Sunday as security forces raided protest hubs and clashed with armed rebels as a tenuous UN-backed ceasefire entered its second month. Syrian troops backed by armoured vehicles on Sunday shot dead seven civilians when they overran a rebellious Sunni Muslim village west of the city of Hama, burning houses and arresting dozens of people, an activists' organisation said.
Five people including a women were among those killed in the village of Tamanaa in al-Ghab, a lush plain in the rural epicentre of the 14-month revolt against president Bashar al-Assad's rule, said the Syrian Network for Human Rights, an opposition activists' group monitoring the crackdown.
"The village was subjected to collective punishment. Over half of its houses were burnt. Several people were executed when they were arrested. The rest were killed from bombardment," a statement from the organisation said. Eighteen were reportedly wounded.
Opposition activists said the Sunni Muslim village, one of dozens that have been torched since Assad's forces seized control of the cities of Homs and Hama, had been a flashpoint for regular demonstrations against Assad.
Its defiance had angered the inhabitants of a nearby Alawite village called al-Aziziyeh, a recruiting ground for a militia loyal to Assad known as shabbiha, which participated in a separate assault on Tamanaa on Friday, the activists said.
Tensions between the two villages had risen after militia men from al-Aziziyeh killed two youths in Tamanaa on Friday after opening fire on an anti-Assad demonstration there, local activists said.
Towns and villages in the region, which is mostly Sunni but has some Alawite areas, have also been giving shelter to Syrian Free Army rebels, who have been stepping up their guerilla attacks on the Alawite-led military.
Syria's Sunni majority is at the forefront of the uprising against Assad, whose sect is an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam.
Four people were also killed in and around Damascus early Sunday as clashes raged  between Syrian regime forces and armed rebels while United Nations observers continue to monitor violence on the ground.
A shaky ceasefire, brokered by UN-Arab League peace envoy Kofi Annan, was supposed to take effect on April 12 but which has been broken daily.
Two civilians and five soldiers died in gunfights between regime forces and armed rebels in the southern province of Daraa, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported.
Clashes broke out in front of a military intelligence office and a recruitment centre in the Dera'a village of Nawa and at a checkpoint in the town of Hara, it added.
A man and his son were killed and 10 other people wounded when they were shot by regime forces in the town of Qusayr in central Homs province, where armed rebel groups have strongholds, the watchdog added.
Also in Homs, a civilian was killed by sniper fire in the town of Rastan.
Outside Damascus, a civilian was shot dead by regime forces at a checkpoint in Dmeir, while another two were killed by regime forces in the capital's northern suburb of Douma, according to the Observatory
A rebel commander, Abu Adi, was killed in overnight clashes with regime forces in Douma, while an officer who deserted the army died in a dawn ambush in the eastern province of Deir Ezzor.
Regime forces killed two more civilians in northwest Idlib province and another in the town of Anadan in northern Aleppo province.
The Local Coordination Committees (LCC), a coalition of opposition activists on the ground, said the Syrian army shelled Douma early Sunday and that heavy gunfire was also heard in the suburb.
More than 12,000 people, the majority of them civilians, have died since the Syrian uprising began in March last year, according to the Observatory, including more than 900 killed since the April 12 truce went into effect.
The UN mission in Syria has said it now has 189 military observers on the ground, almost two thirds of its planned strength of 300.
Syria on Saturday accused the United States and Western countries of colluding with al Qaeda-linked militants to target the country, in the wake of a recent string of explosions in Damascus and Aleppo the government has blamed on foreign-backed fighters.
“Western countries and the United States, which made alliances to wage wars using the pretext of fighting terrorism, are now making alliances with the terrorists which Syria has been facing,” information minister Adnan Hasan Mahmoud told journalists in Damascus on Saturday.
He said attacks such as a deadly twin car bombing in Damascus on Wednesday which killed 55 people showed that elements linked to the global militant group were targeting Syria.
“This terrorist escalation using booby-trapped cars with tons of explosives to target the Syrian people ... is a continuation of the bloody terrorist tactic used between armed groups and al Qaeda, along with the international Western countries that support them with weapons and money,” he said.
The opposition denies any role in the attacks and has argued that the government is behind the bombings.
Opposition to Assad, which began with peaceful protests in March 2011 inspired by popular revolts against other Arab autocratic leaders, has grown increasingly militarised. UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon said on Wednesday there was only a narrow window of opportunity to avert full-scale civil war.
The United Nations says more than 9000 people have been killed in Assad’s crackdown on unrest, while Syria says militants have killed at least 2600 of its security forces.