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Summary At least 114 people were killed in Syria violence, including 61 civilians, 32 regime troops.
Fighting raged in Syrias second city Aleppo on Thursday afternoon, a watchdog said, as regime forces shelled a village in Damascus province, killing five children.A security source told AFP troops were preparing to launch an all-out offensive on rebel-held districts of Aleppo.Intermittent clashes were reported in the Damascus district of Al-Hajar Al-Aswad, with the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights watchdog saying at least seven people were killed there on Thursday.Regime forces pounded the southern Salaheddin and eastern Jazamati districts of Aleppo, the countrys commercial hub, the Observatory said.Across Syria, at least 114 people were killed on Thursday, including 61 civilians, 32 regime troops and 21 rebels, according to the group.Regime forces shelled the village of Yalda, just south of the capital Damascus, killing 16 civilians, among them five children and four women, the Observatory said.The villagers are terrified, the Syrian Revolution General Commission said in a statement, adding that there are difficulties helping the wounded. Some houses collapsed with people still inside them.The violence came as rebels and troops prepared for a major battle in Aleppo.The special forces were deployed on Wednesday and Thursday on the edges of the city, and more troops have arrived to take part in a generalised counter-offensive on Friday or Saturday, a security source said.Rebels also said a regime assault appeared imminent.We expect a major offensive at any time, specifically on areas across the southern belt, from east to west, Colonel Abdel Jabbar al-Okaidi, a spokesman for the rebel Free Syrian Army in Aleppo, told AFP via Skype.Syrian newspaper Al-Watan, which is close to the regime, led Thursday with the headline Aleppo, the mother of all battles.For five hours on Wednesday night, without let-up, government forces bombarded the southwestern quarter of Salaheddin, which is almost entirely under rebel control, an AFP correspondent witnessed.The rebels admitted to the correspondent that they are no march for the military and many share the certainty they will die in the expected assault.In the meantime they prepared to confront the troops, filling sandbags to erect barricades and moving a bus into position to block a street. Some also belt out slogans to give themselves courage.In southern Damascus, street battles were also fought on Thursday morning in the Yarmuk Palestinian refugee camp, the Observatory said.There are clashes on Street 30 in the Yarmouk camp between Syrian regime forces and fighters from rebel units. Explosions can be heard, it said.
