Alleged terrorists gun down 8 across Syria

DAMASCUS - At least eight people were killed and 20 others injured, including children, in separate attacks carried out by "armed groups" across Syria on Thursday, state-run SANA news agency reported.

Armed groups fired rocket propelled grenades (RPG) at three neighborhoods in central province of Homs, killing four people, including two women, and injuring 20 others, SANA said, adding that another armed group on Thursday shelled the Palestinian Camp neighborhood in Homs with mortars.

Earlier in the day, a colonel was killed by an armed group in front of his house in al-Wae'er area in Homs. Also, a First Lieutenant from the army engineering units was killed when trying to dismantle an explosive device which was remotely detonated in Khirbat Ghazala area in southern Daraa province, SANA said.

In a separate attack, an armed group assassinated an industrialist at Sheikh Najjar Industrial City in northern Aleppo province, SANA said, adding that the authorities are studying and analyzing information to hunt down the killers.

Also on Thursday, a law-enforcement member was killed by the gunfire of an armed terrorist group near Homs. Quoting what it described as "a well-informed source," SANA said that the armed group opened fire on the car of the law-enforcement forces while crossing the Shinshar bridge near Homs and killed a member of them.

Meanwhile, engineering units dismantled two explosive devices in Homs, SANA said, adding that each device was handmade and weighed 25 kg.

In Damascus' countryside and central province of Hama, the competent authorities continued hunting down "armed groups" and managed to confiscate some weapons and ammunition, some of which were made by Israel, SANA said.

The seized weapons included machine guns, bombs, Israeli-made bombs and explosive devices, communication devices, binoculars and night vision devices in addition to uniforms similar to what the Arab observers wore during their tours in Syria.

SANA said that the authorities also discovered an abandoned house Thursday, which had been used by "terrorists" to torture the kidnapped people, adding that a team of Arab observers had gone to the area and documented the incidents there.

On Tuesday, Syria agreed to extend the Arab League (AL) observer mission for a second month.

The AL started a monitoring mission in the country on December 26 of last year to monitor the country's unrest on the ground.

Meanwhile, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reportedly said that 49 people were killed Thursday across Syria, including eight Syrian soldiers and seven defectors.

The report, however, couldn't be independently verified on the ground.

The Syrian government has charged that a media war is being launched to undermine Syria's security and stability. It further says that it's cracking down on armed groups that are targeting army men and civilians as well.

Some Syrian provinces, such as Homs, Hama, Idlib, and some suburbs of the capital Damascus, have witnessed severe clashes between government troops and militia groups, allegedly comprising of Syrian army defectors. The daily grind of violence has stocked fears that the country might be sliding toward a civil war.

The head of the so-called Syrian Free Army, a group of alleged defectors who were given refuge in Turkey, has recently pledged to carry out wide-scale attacks against army bases across Syria.

Damascus said some 2,000 army and security personnel have been killed since the unrest began last March, while the UN has reported more than 5,400 deaths from the violence.