BREAKING NEWS

Syria violence kills 23 despite UN-monitored truce

BEIRUT - Violence erupted in two Syrian provinces on Tuesday, with a rights group reporting 10 civilians dead in an army mortar attack and 12 soldiers killed in a fire-fight with rebel gunmen as UN monitors sought to shore up a shaky ceasefire.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which tracks the 13-month-old uprising against President Bashar Assad, said nine members of one family died in mortar bomb blasts in a village in the northern province of Idlib.
An activist on the Turkish border, Tareq Abdelhaq, said 35 people had been wounded and that some were being carried 25 km (15 miles) along mountain tracks to receive emergency treatment in refugee camps dotted along the frontier.
"Some are being smuggled over the border to Turkey. They had to carry the wounded and go through the mountains to avoid checkpoints on the road," Abdelhaq said. "One guy died on the way. He was 19 years old and had very bad injuries."