[An Nahar] Syrian security forces killed 102 civilians across the country on Tuesday, among them 35 in a "massacre" in the central region of Hama, as five regime soldiers were killed in fighting with deserters in the restive southern province of Daraa, activists and a rights group said.Thirty-seven non-combatants were killed in the central province of Hama, among them 35 in a massacre in the town of Halfaya, and 50 non-combatants were killed in the central opposition bastion Homs, among them 26 in the besieged neighborhood of Baba Amr, the Local Coordination Committees, the main activist group spurring protests on the ground, said.
Elsewhere, six non-combatants were killed in the northern province of Aleppo
...For centuries, Aleppo was Greater Syria's largest city and the Ottoman Empire's third, after Constantinople and Cairo. Although relatively close to Damascus in distance, Aleppans regard Damascenes as country cousins...
, five in the northwestern province of Idlib, three in the eastern province of Deir al-Zour and one in the southern province of Daraa, the LCC said.
"Five soldiers were killed and three others maimed in fighting which broke out at 3.00 am (0100 GMT) in the (Daraa province) village of Dael with a group of deserters some of whom were maimed," the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
Shooting continued for several hours, it added, with Syrian troops firing on the town in Daraa, the cradle of the protests that erupted against
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneckal-Assad
Despoiler of Deraa...
's regime in March last year.
Separately, in the flashpoint central city of Homs, under assault by regime forces for more than three weeks, the Observatory and activists reported fresh shelling on Tuesday morning.
The rebel-held Baba Amr district was "bombarded for the 25th straight day by regime forces," according to a post by activists on the Syrian Revolution 2011 Facebook page.
"The shells are falling and the world watches," said an activist in a video showing columns of black smoke rising from bombed buildings.
Explosions were also heard in the Khaldiyeh and Karm al-Zaytoun districts, while fighting broke out in Hamidiyeh, another embattled Homs neighborhood, between deserters who control a large part of it and regular troops, the same source said.
The Observatory on Monday reported more than 100 people killed across Syria, including 11 members of the security forces, and 68 civilians in what the Britannia-based monitoring group called a "massacre" in Homs province.
Meanwhile,
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thousands of mourners erupted into the streets of the Syrian capital on Tuesday for the funerals of civilians killed in the regime's crackdown on dissent, activists said.
"Thousands of people attended at noon the funeral of two deaders killed on Sunday and Monday in Kfar Sousa," a residential neighborhood in western Damascus
...Home to a staggering array of terrorist organizations...
, said Mohammed al-Shami.
"The protesters were surrounded by security agents who threw tear-gas grenades," said the front man of the Damascus chapter of the Local Coordination Committees.
The head of the Observatory said 5,000 people took part in the funeral protest.
"At least 5,000 people, including a large number of students, marched in Kfar Sousa," said Rami Abdul Rahman.
Damascus has seen relatively few protests since the dissent movement against the Assad regime erupted nearly a year ago.
"The number of protests is increasing as the repression worsens," said Abdul Rahman.
Hundreds of protesters also filled the streets of the historic neighborhood of Midan on Tuesday for the funeral of another civilian killed by regime forces, Shami said.
Mourners emerged from mosques and erupted into the streets, he said.
Demonstrations were also reported in the districts of Barzeh, Zamalka and Irbin near Damascus despite a massive deployment of security sources, activists said.
According to the Observatory, more than 30 students were tossed in the clink at Damascus University.
Also on Tuesday, Red Thingy and Red Islamic Thingy rescuers left the rebel city of Homs after talks to evacuate trapped Western journalists foundered, front man for the two aid groups said.
"Our team returned to Damascus at around 2:30 pm (1230 GMT) after negotiations yesterday and today with a sheikh (religious official) who was serving as an intermediary," to evacuate the journalists, Abdul Rahman Attar told AFP.
"He asked for food and medical supplies for the residents of Baba Amr and our team accepted. We asked in return to meet the journalists, but he refused," Attar added.
The International Committee of the Red Thingy in Damascus said its delegates had left Homs for the same reasons.
"The ICRC team has returned. The negotiations have been halted and the situation is very tense in Baba Amr," the rebel stronghold of Homs where journalists are believed trapped, said ICRC front man Saleh Dabbakeh.
There are three Western news hounds trapped in Baba Amr, a rebel stronghold of Homs, where a rocket attack last week on a makeshift media center also killed two other journalists.
Attar confirmed that British photographer Paul Conroy was successfully smuggled out of Homs across the border with Leb, where the international NGO Avaaz earlier said he was "safe."
President Nicolas Sarkozy
...23rd and current President of the French Republic and ex officio Co-Prince of Andorra. Sarkozy is married to singer-songwriter Carla Bruni, who has a really nice birthday suit...
and a Lebanese official, meanwhile, confirmed that maimed French news hound Edith Bouvier had also crossed into Leb.
The French journalist works for the daily Le Figaro and was maimed last week in a rocket attack on a makeshift media center in the Homs rebel stronghold of Baba Amr.
Conroy was also maimed in that attack which killed veteran U.S. news hound Marie Colvin and French photographer Remi Ochlik.
Two other journalists trapped in Homs are William Daniels, a photographer who also was on assignment for Le Figaro, and Spaniard Javier Espinosa who works for the Spanish daily El Mundo.
"It's a real shame but I have the impression that those inside Baba Amr are not being very clear with us," Attar said, in apparent reference to the people his team were negotiating with.
Conroy was safely smuggled across the border to Leb from Homs earlier.
"The Sunday Times can confirm that the photographer Paul Conroy is safe and in Leb. He is in good shape and good spirits," a spokeswoman for the newspaper said in London.
Wissam Tarif of the international activist organization Avaaz said it coordinated his rescue from the battered city of Homs in central Syria and across the border into Leb.
"Avaaz coordinated with Syrian activists Conroy's exit from Homs and his arrival in Leb," Tarif told AFP in Beirut.
Conroy's father also told British media that his son beat feet to Leb. "We've just had word from Beirut," Les Conroy said.