BEIRUT/DAMASCUS/AMMAN: Syrian troops stormed a village in central Syria Sunday and rained shells on the rebel strongholds Douma and Rastan, monitors said, as a United Nations-backed truce entered a second month looking in tatters.
 
The assault on Al-Tamanaa al-Ghab village in Hama province, a hotbed of opposition to President Bashar Assad, killed five civilians, wounded 18 and saw houses torched, the anti-regime Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
 
Clashes between troops and deserters in the southern province of Deraa, meanwhile, saw five soldiers killed, it said. Two civilians died in the crossfire, they added.
 
The observatory said at least 25 people – 18 civilians, five soldiers and two rebels – were killed in a surge of violence in various flashpoints Sunday, despite a cease-fire brokered by U.N.-Arab League peace envoy Kofi Annan that was supposed to take effect on April 12.
 
The Local Coordination Committees – a coalition of opposition activists on the ground – said the Syrian army shelled Douma, near Damascus, Sunday.
 
They also said heavy gunfire was heard in the suburb of the capital.
 
The LCC also said the town of Rastan in central Homs province had come under heavy bombardment, with one activist reporting “one rocket a minute” slamming into the rebel-held town.
 
Speaking via Skype from Hama, activist Mousab al-Hamady said one local rebel leader was killed alongside five civilians in Al-Tamanaa.
 
“He was a hero in the Free Syrian Army who was trying to defend the civilians,” he said.
 
The violence in Syria has escalated over the past week, despite the arrival of more cease-fire observers.
 
The U.N. mission in Syria said Sunday it now has 189 military observers on the ground, nearly two-thirds of its planned strength of 300.
 
“There are now 189 monitors on the ground,” Hassan Siklawi, a representative of the U.N. mission in Syria, told AFP.
 
The observers are tasked with shoring up the cease-fire, which has been broken daily by both sides.
 
“I think the Annan plan is in crisis and that if the approach of the international community against the violence remains weak, there is a real risk that it will reach an impasse,” Burhan Ghalioun, head of the opposition Syrian National Council, said in Rome.
 
“There must be a plan to exert pressure on the Syrian government.
 
“The Syrian regime has not stuck to its commitments. It continues to fire on the civilian population, torture members of the democratic opposition and to sabotage the plan by all means possible,” Ghalioun told reporters after meeting Italian Foreign Minister Giulio Terzi.
 
Opposition leaders are in Rome to try to strengthen the fractured SNC, which is seeking international help to oust Assad.
 
Political jockeying within the council has prevented it from gaining full international endorsement.
 
Ghalioun said Sunday he stood ready to hand over the chairmanship of SNC to others to broaden its appeal.
 
The SNC is supposed to appoint a new chairman every three months, but Ghalioun has remained leader since the council was set up in Oct. 2011 because of lack of agreement over who his successor should be.
 
Ghalioun was last reappointed chairman on Feb. 15.
 
“I might not be confirmed [again] to the SNC chairmanship. As far as I’m concerned a new leader could be selected so that everyone can be given a chance to serve the opposition,” he told Italy’s ANSA news agency.
 
Twin suicide bombings in Damascus Thursday that killed 55 people and wounded 372 have raised fears that extremist elements are taking advantage of the deadlock in Syria to stoke the unrest.
 
Al-Nusra Front – an Islamist group unknown before the Syrian revolt – released a video Saturday claiming responsibility for the Damascus attacks as revenge for regime bombing of residential areas in several towns and to avenge Sunnis killed by forces loyal to Assad. Claims by the group – including for past bombings – have proved very difficult to verify.
 
The head of the dissident FSA in remarks published Sunday charged that Al-Qaeda had links with the powerful air force intelligence agency of the regime.
 
“If Al-Qaeda militants have indeed entered the country, it happened with the cooperation of that agency,” FSA chief Colonel Riad al-Asaad told Kuwait’s Al-Rai newspaper.
 
Asaad dismissed claims by Damascus that jihadist and Salafist groups were active in Syria, and blamed the Syrian regime for Thursday’s devastating bomb blasts in the capital, calling for an international investigation.
 
Jamal al-Wadi, a member of the SNC, said he believed Assad’s security forces were behind the bombings.
 
“By orchestrating this, the regime is trying to send a message to the outside world that it is facing a terrorist threat, not a popular war against repression,” Wadi told Reuters, adding the bombs also served as a warning to the people of Damascus to stop protesting against Assad.
 
Syrian authorities said Saturday they had foiled another car bomb in Aleppo.
 
State media have accused the West and its regional allies of opening the door to Al-Qaeda through its backing of the opposition.
 
More than 12,000 people, the majority of them civilians, have died since the Syrian uprising began in March 2011, according to the Observatory, including more than 900 killed since the April 12 truce.
 
European Union foreign ministers are to meet in Brussels Monday to discuss a new round of sanctions on Syria, with diplomats saying these would include an assets freeze and visa ban on two firms and three people.
 
One EU diplomat said the measures targeting “mainly sources of revenue for the regime” would be decided at Monday’s talks.
 
“There is an agreement in principle” between ambassadors of the 27-nation bloc on a 15th round of sanctions against Assad’s regime, the diplomat said.