33 killed, Homs rebels claim 38 Hezbollah fighters dead

Violence continues in many Syrian neighbourhoods with reports of deaths and injuries The Free Syrian Army (FSA) has been reported to have taken an ammunition depot in Aleppo as the Local Coordination Committees (LCCs) announced a preliminary death toll of 22 in Syria on Sunday. The FSA struck an Air Force Intelligence building at Abbasids Square in Damascus and took another military building in Rif Dimashq. Activists reported that the FSA had also taken sites near the Damascus square as well as "most" of the Jobar neighbourhood, where clashes continue.
An opposition source has told Agence France Presse (AFP) that rebel fighters took arms and ammunitions depots in Khan Touman in the south of Aleppo province on Saturday following three days of intense fighting. The source said the stores contained "a small number of ammunition boxes remaining after the main stock was transferred over a period of more than four months."
In Homs, fighting is taking place principally around the neighbourhoods of Khalidiya and Baba Amr, clashes took place at a roadblock in Houla, the Syria News Network (SNN) reported. Fighters had said they had taken off the Dabaa roadblock in the southern suburbs of the city.
Violent clashes took place in the villages of Omm al-Kheir and Omm al-Massamir in Hasaka province between armed locals and opposition forces who attacked the villages. Helicopters were seen circling the area and deaths and injuries have been reported on both sides.
The Hasaka countryside has seen similar clashes over the past few days over rebels taking parts of the province.Hasaka City was bombarded Saturday evening and a woman and a child were killed whilst several others were injured.
Clashes took place in the northwest of Sweida province between the pro-regime Popular Committees (PCs), local Bedouins and opposition forces who had attacked roadblocks manned by the PCs'. The clashes lasted for several hours and resulted in the death of at least three PC fighters and eight opposition and Bedouin fighters.
The FSA's political and media coordinator Louay Meqdad said the FSA was "prepared" to enact a ceasefire and withdraw its units from the border area and into Syria "on the condition that the Lebanese army  control the border with Syria."
He said that Hezbollah had deployed two rocket launchpads towards Houch el-Sayed Ali on the Lebanese side of the border, and that the Lebanese group had lost a man in clashes in the Damascus area. He named the Hezbollah fighter as Hassan Nimr Shartouni from Mail Jabal.
Meqdad also said the Syrian regime's recent escalation of hostilities was in response to France supplying the opposition with anti-aircraft weapons.
According to a preliminary death toll for Sunday announced by the LCCs, 33 Syrians were killed by regime fire, including a woman and two children, and three people died as the result of torture. Damascus and Rif Dimashq saw the largest number of deaths with 15, followed by Daraa with six.
The Homs Military Council has meanwhile announced that 38 Hezbollah fighters were killed over the past 48 hours.
UK newspaper the Daily Star Sunday reported that Britain has begun "quietly" withdrawing Special Air Service (SAS) and Special Boat Service (SBS) units stationed in Afghanistan for redeployment in Syria. The Sunday tabloid claimed: "They will be working with guidance from MI6 and their French counterparts, the Directorate-General for External Security, to get a £20million Brit-funded arsenal stockpiled in neighbouring countries into rebel hands."
As the UK and France continue to agitate for the EU to lift the arms embargo imposed on Syria in order to arm the rebels, the EU's top diplomat Catherine Ashton urged caution and stressed the need to "consider the implications" of such a move "in a number of different ways."
"We have to work through, very carefully, the best understanding we can have of what would be the implications," she said Saturday at the German Marshall Funds (GMF) Brussels Forum.
Ashton added: "Would putting more weapons into the field make it more or less likely that others will do the same? What would be the response of Assad, based on what we know about his response so far? Would it stop people being killed or would it kill people faster?"
The EU embassy in Cairo has denied media reports that Ashton was set to arrive in Cairo on Sunday for talks about the situation in Syria.