Updated on
Summary At least 70 people were killed in acts of violence across Syria as protesters took to the streets.
More than 70 people were killed across Syria on Friday, monitors said, as tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets on Friday and tanks were deployed in the countrys second largest city.The latest flare-up of violence came as Kofi Annan, the UN-Arab League envoy to Syria who brokered a repeatedly-violated ceasefire last month, finalised plans to return to Damascus.Diplomats in Geneva said the former UN secretary general would visit the Syrian capital early next week.More than 50 civilians, including 13 children, were killed in army shelling of Houla, a town in the central province of Homs, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.It was a real massacre that took place and the UN observers are just staying silent, the head of the monitoring group, Rami Abdel Rahman, told AFP in a telephone call.For the first time since the uprising against President Bashar al-Assads regime erupted 14 months ago, army tanks rumbled through Aleppo, said the Britain-based watchdog.It also said helicopter gunships went into action against rebels, strafing mountain villages in the Latakia area of northwestern Syria, near the Turkish border, wounding at least 20 people.At least four policemen were killed in clashes with rebels in Kansebba, in the same area, the Observatory added.Hours after massive anti-regime rallies across Aleppo, tanks deployed in the city, Syrias economic hub, rumbling through the Kalasse and Bustan al-Kasr neighbourhoods after thousands attended a funeral, it said.Earlier the group reported that a young man was killed in Aleppo when troops fired with live rounds and tear gas on protesters in the city, where 12 massive anti-regime rallies took place on Friday.Long live Syria Down with Assad demonstrators chanted at the funeral, said the watchdog.Another four civilians were also killed by gunfire in Aleppo, the rights watchdog added, including two children.Abdel Rahman told AFP in Beirut the protests in Aleppo were the most important in the city since the uprising started in March 2011.In all more than 70 people were killed on Friday, according to an Observatory tally, including 10 in Hama province, also central Syria.
