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Summary Brahimi is aiming to secure a ceasefire during a four-day Muslim holiday from October 26.
Syrian jets bombarded a rebel town Thursday on the second day of an assault in which the regime is accused of using cluster bombs, hours before peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi flies in to Damascus to press for a truce.Brahimi is aiming to secure a ceasefire during a four-day Muslim holiday from October 26, hoping it will bring a longer halt to the bloodletting in the 19-month conflict that has already killed more than 34,000 people.Violence has persisted on the ground, however, with loyalists of President Bashar al-Assad and rebels locked in an all-out battle for the northwestern town of Maaret al-Numan on the highway linking Syrias two biggest cities.Assads forces, who hold air supremacy, again battered the town a day after strikes on a residential area killed dozens, nearly half of them children, rescuers told an AFP reporter at the scene.The military wants to regain control of the highway to resupply units under fire in the northern metropolis of Aleppo for the past three months, and assist 250 troops besieged in their Wadi Deif base.Fighter jets overflew at high altitude before nosediving and striking targets on the towns outskirts, as helicopter gunships buzzed the area, the correspondent said.The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said targets included rebels camped near Wadi Deif, which is also a major storage facility for heavy armour and fuel.Military aircraft dropped bombs that targeted rebels camped near (the base at) Wadi Deif, concentrating their firepower on the villages of Talmans and Maashemsha, it said.Rebels showed AFP debris from cluster bombs which they accused the air force of dropping on residential areas and the front lines, as well as dozens of other bomblets that failed to explode on impact.The bomblets bear the Cyrillic script on their tail fins, suggesting they could have been made in Russia -- a key Damascus ally.Human Rights Watch has accused Syria of using cluster bombs, a charge denied by the military which insists it does not possess such devices.Syria has not ratified an international convention banning the weapon which can carry up to 650 submunitions.Non-governmental groups say up to 40 percent of the bomblets fail to explode and that 98 percent of victims are civilians, including children who mistake them for toys.
