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Fighting in Aleppo escalates
Fierce fighting continues over control of the country's largest city as death toll continues to rise.
Syrian rebel fighters pose on top of a tank captured two days earlier at a checkpoint in the village of Anadan, about five kilometres northwest of Aleppo
Troops loyal to President Bashar al-Assad killed at least 35 people on Wednesday, mostly unarmed civilians, when they shelled and overran a suburb of the capital Damascus, residents and activist organisations said.
Meanwhile a video has emerged from Syria which appears to show rebels executing regime loyalists in the embattled city of Aleppo.
The men, allegedly members of the shabiha, or armed groups who have assisted in the government's crackdown, are lined up and shot at point blank range.
The narrator in the video, uploaded to YouTube, says the men are from the Barri clan, whom the rebels accuse of murder.
The development comes as fierce fighting rages for control of Syria's largest city, with rebel fighters putting up determined resistance to an army counter-offensive launched on Saturday.
Nationwide, at least 135 people were killed in violence on Wednesday - 74 civilians, 43 soldiers and 18 rebels, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
On Tuesday, 124 people were killed nationwide, around half of them in Aleppo, it said.
Separately, the UN said its military observers in Syria had seen the military use a fighter jet to strike the rebels in Aleppo, who were now armed with tanks.
"The observers now have confirmed information that the opposition is in possession of heavy weapons including tanks in Aleppo," Martin Nesirky, UN spokesman, said at the UN headquarters on Wednesday.
The UN observer mission also reported seeing a fighter jet attacking the city in a field visit to the city on Tuesday.
Reportedly, earlier this year US president Barack Obama approved an order authorising US support for Syria's opposition.
The intelligence "finding", as the order is called, allows the CIA and other agencies to aid the rebels, US sources told the news agency.
The White House - which declined to comment on the report - has openly expressed support for the opposition, but has stopped short of providing arms.
Activists estimate some 20,000 people have died since March last year.
Russian President, Vladimir Putin, is arriving in the UK on Thursday and is expected to discuss the Syrian crisis with British Prime Minister David Cameron.
