At least 20 people have been killed in clashes between Syrian troops and rebels in the southern and central parts of the country, as a United Nations official warned "of a third party" involved in the Syrian crisis. "There is a third party involved in the Syrian equation," the UN undersecretary ...
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At least 20 people have been killed in clashes between Syrian troops and rebels in the southern and central parts of the country, as a United Nations official warned "of a third party" involved in the Syrian crisis.
"There is a third party involved in the Syrian equation," the UN undersecretary general for peacekeeping operations, Herve Ladsous, told a press conference in the Syrian capital Damascus on Monday.
He was referring to extremist groups, but didn't name any specific one. Ladsous affirmed that the focus in the Syrian crisis now "should be on building dialogue and confidence between the parties".
According to a UN statement, Ladsous met with Syrian officials and opposition groups in the central city of Homs, during a visit to assess progress made on the ground by UN observers.
He said there were still some "sticking points" between the UN, Syrian authorities and other parties. Ladsous emphasised that the violence would end only if Syrians and all parties, internal and external, choose the path of dialogue.
The UN Supervision Mission in Syria is composed of 260 ceasefire observers with another 40 expected to arrive soon. It was authorised to have 300 observers for three months, starting from April.
But the presence of the observer mission has failed to stop the violence; the ceasefire that took effect on April 12 has been violated on a near-daily basis.
On Monday alone, opposition activists reported that four soldiers and 12 rebels were among those killed in the country.
There was fierce fighting in the southern province of Daraa and central region of Hama. In Daraa, more than 20 people were arrested, the spokesman of the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Rami Abdul-Rahman, told dpa.
Government forces also shelled the central province of Homs, killing four people and wounding more than 10, activists said.
The military has been attacking restive areas in the dissident province of Homs for months.
On Monday, an al-Qaeda-linked group, the Al-Nusra Front, claimed responsibility for a car bombing in the eastern city of Deir Ezzor on Sunday in which nine people died and 100 were wounded.
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