Local coordination committees Live Blog

 At least six people were killed, including a young girl, as Syrian forces on Tuesday launched a major assault on Herak, a  town in the southern province of Daraa, a monitoring group said.

The girl was shot dead by a sniper, while at least five soldiers were killed in clashes with members of the rebel Free Syrian Army (FSA), the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says.

"Large military forces, including tanks and armoured troop carriers, launched an assault on Herak. Explosions and heavy machinegun fire were heard," the Britain-based monitoring group added, citing residents.

The Local Coordination Committees, a network of activists on the ground, denounced the heavy shelling of Herak, which it said targeted houses and mosques, as well as a search operation that saw troops burn homes, loot and carry out arrests.

Elsewhere, "tanks and troop carriers besieged the locality of Tibet al-Imam," in central Hama province, the LCC said.

In Maaret al-Numan, a town in the northwestern province of Idlib, a 23-year-old man was shot dead by sniper fire, according to the Observatory. 

Security forces also killed two others in Idlib.

After fleeing the battered Baba Amr district in the flashpoint central city of Homs, the rebels regrouped in nearby Rastan, which according to the Observatory and activists came under artillery fire on Sunday and Monday.

"The regime is going to try and increase the pressure on Rastan, there are preparations underway to carry out an assault because it is clear that the city is not under its control," said Rami Abdel Rahman, who heads the Observatory.

Rastan, bombed intermittently since February 5, is located on the motorway linking Damascus to northern Syria.

Qusayr, another town in Homs province mainly under rebel control, was also targeted by heavy bombardment, according to Anas Abu Ali, an official with the FSA.

[AFP]

The Local Co-ordination Committees, an umbrella group of anti-Assad activist groups, say that at least three people have been killed in violence today: one in Idlib, one in Aleppo and one in Deir Ezzour.

The LCC reports that the military is continuing its assault on Homs, and has also been carrying out attacks on Khreita in Deir Ezzor.

In Idlib, the group says the government is shelling  "indiscriminately amid a campaign of arbitrary arrests".

The Local Co-ordination Committees report that at least 30 people have been killed in today's violence. They say 13 people were killed in Deraa, 12 in Homs, two in Maaret al-Nouman, two in Idlib, two in Rankous and one in Damascus itself.

This conflicts, as is often the case, with the Syrian Revolution General Commission's (SRGC) figures. That group says that at least 46 people have been killed today, with 20 of them in Homs, 11 in Deraa, 10 in Damascus, three in Idlib, one in Hama and one in Damascus itself.

Shelling has been reported from the Karam Zaytoun neighbourhood of Homs, and firing in the Damascus suburb of Bayada, where an anti-Assad protest was taking place.

According to the LCCs, the number of people injured in the violence in Daraya is more than 33, while six people are reported to have died there.

In Deraa, the LCCs say the town was stormed "by security and army forces" this morning, and that dozens of people were arrested by the authorities.