Clashes continue in Syria

An attack on a pro-government television near Damascus killed seven staff on Wednesday, state media said, while a rights group said 17 people died in other violence on the heels of the "bloodiest week" of the 15-month uprising. Live footage broadcast by state television showed extensive damage to the studios of Al-Ikhbariya satellite channel outside the capital with several small fires still burning. "The terrorist groups stormed the offices of Al-Ikhbariya, planted explosives in the studios and blew up them with up along with the equipment," Information Minister Omran al-Zohbi told state television in a live interview. "They carried out the worst massacre against the media, executing journalists and security staff," Zohbi said, adding that a number of staff were kidnapped. Those killed comprised three journalists and four security guards, state media said. Press watchdog Reporters Without Borders called for members of a UN observer mission, which suspended its operations on June 16 in the face of worsening violence, to visit the scene to ascertain the facts. "News organisations should not be used as targets by the parties to the conflict," the watchdog said, "However, we deplore in the strongest possible terms the broadcast by the media of messages inciting hatred and violence against civilians.." In other violence today, 10 soldiers were killed before dawn in the eastern province of Deir Ezzor, while 15 troops defected to the rebels, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. In the northwestern province of Idlib, two civilians and five soldiers were killed, among them a colonel of the elite Republican Guard. More than 15,800 people have been killed since the outbreak of the revolt against President Bashar al-Assad's regime in March last year, the Observatory said.Rebel forces and Syrian army units engaged in deadly combat around elite Republican Guard posts in the suburbs of Damascus, as 116 people were killed across the country on Tuesday. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the death toll consisted of 68 civilians, 41 soldiers and seven rebels. "Violent clashes are taking place around positions of the Republican Guard in Qudsaya and Al-Hama," eight kilometres from central Damascus, the head of the Observatory, Rami Abdel Rahman said. Twenty-eight people were killed in and around the capital, including 15 people in Al-Hama and 11 in Qudsaya during shelling by regime troops. "This is the first time that the regime uses artillery in fighting so close to the capital," Abdel Rahman said. "This development is important because it's the heaviest fighting in the area and close to the heart of the capital." Abu Omar, a spokesman for activists in the Damascus region, said via Skype that "all communication has been cut off in and around Al-Hama and Qudsaya." He charged that regime forces "stormed the areas with tanks" and also spoke of a "massacre" although he gave no further details. The official SANA news agency said, meanwhile, that government forces clashed with "armed terrorist groups" in Al-Hama. "The armed groups attacked citizens and law enforcement forces and blocked the Old Beirut road to use it as a smuggling route for weapons," SANA said. "Dozens of terrorists were killed in the clashes," while others were arrested, SANA said. Weapons were also seized, including "rocket-propelled grenade launchers, sniper rifles, machine guns and a large amount of ammunition," the agency added. The Observatory reported that five people were killed in the eastern city of Deir Ezzor, including a child, as the army pounded several neighbourhoods, while three were killed elsewhere in the province. Thirteen civilians, including two young siblings, were killed in army shelling in the northwest province of Idlib, where two rebels also died in clashes with the government troops, the Britain-based Observatory said. In central Hama province, a rebel battalion commander and a defected officer were killed during clashes between the army and rebels, it added