BEIRUT: Syrian troops bombarded a rebellious suburb of the capital with tank and artillery shells Friday, killing dozens of people during two bloody days across the country which saw over 190 people killed, activists said.
 
The violence is part of a fierce government offensive aimed at regaining control of parts of Damascus suburbs where rebels operate and came on the eve of a major meeting of world powers in Geneva Saturday to try to hash out a political transition plan for Syria.
 
It’s difficult to get an accurate death toll in tightly controlled Syria, where journalists and human rights groups are either banned or severely restricted. But two opposition groups that compile and document casualties reported the death of more than 125 civilians in fighting across the country Thursday alone.
 
Death tolls take several days to compile due to communication difficulties.
 
The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Thursday’s toll included more than 60 soldiers. If confirmed, it would be one of the highest death tolls on a single day since the start of the uprising against President Bashar Assad in March 2011.
 
Activists said at least 43 were killed in more than two days of shelling in the Damascus suburb of Douma, which has been a hotbed of dissent and has put up strong resistance to the Assad regime. The dead included three children and five members of a single family.
 
A local activist who spoke on condition of anonymity for security reasons said the shelling had been “relentless’’ throughout Thursday, and exploding shells had killed people in their homes.
 
“They [government troops] are trying to bring Douma under control, but they are being met by fierce resistance,’’ said Rami Abdul-Rahman, the observatory director. He said most of the dead were civilians.
 
The Local Coordination Committees network said 59 people had been killed in Thursday’s shelling of Damascus suburbs, most of them in Douma. The difference in tolls could not be reconciled.
 
The state-run SANA news agency said troops continue to pursue “terrorist groups’’ in Douma, raiding their hideouts and destroying their communications and other equipment.
 
Amateur videos posted by activists online showed bloodied bodies lying on blankets in a room and others shrouded in white sheets and placed on stretchers. “A new massacre by Bashar Assad,’’ cried a man holding a dead girl in a pink blouse, a large gash on her face.
 
The Syrian General Revolution Commission Friday reported 25 people killed, most of them in central Homs.
 
Overnight Thursday, Syrian rebel sources in Turkey’s Hatay region said Assad’s helicopters attacked Saraqeb, a strategic town in northern Idlib, but kept away from the area directly along the Turkish border in the rural regions of Idlib and Aleppo provinces. Turkey has deployed missile batteries along the border region following Syria’s shooting down of a Turkish warplane a week ago, which has sharply raised tensions between the two nations.
 
General Mustafa al-Sheikh, head of the Higher Military Council, a grouping of senior officers who defected from Assad’s forces, said around 170 Syrian tanks had assembled at an infantry school near the village of Musalmieh northeast of the city of Aleppo, just 30 km from the Turkish border.
 
“They’re either preparing to move to the border to counter the Turkish deployment or attack the rebellious [Syrian] towns and villages in and around the border zone north of Aleppo,’’ Sheikh told Reuters by telephone from the border.
 
Omar Abdullah, an activist in Idlib coordinating with the Free Syrian Army, said: “After taking hits in rural Aleppo and Idlib, the army is regrouping ... There is speculation that these forces intend to ring Aleppo, starting July 1.’’
 
Their claims could not be independently verified.
 
Much of the violence that has gripped Syria has been sanctioned by the government to crush dissent. But rebel fighters are launching increasingly deadly attacks on regime targets. A bomb blast rocked central Damascus Thursday near a busy market and the country’s main justice complex, wounding at least three people and sending a cloud of black smoke into the air.
 
The latest carnage came as world powers show new urgency to resolve the crisis, which so far has resisted international efforts.
 
A ministerial meeting of world powers aimed at salvaging a failed peace plan brokered by international envoy Kofi Annan will go ahead Saturday in Geneva, the former U.N. chief’s spokesman said, despite deep differences between world powers over a proposal for political transition in the country.
 
Annan expressed optimism ahead of the meeting of representatives from the U.S., Russia, Britain, China, France, Iraq, Qatar, Turkey and Kuwait, but diplomatic signals emerging Friday were less than positive.
 
Annan’s plan, obtained by AFP, said an interim government could include Assad officials and the opposition “but would exclude ... those whose continued presence and participation would undermine the credibility of the transition and jeopardize stability and reconciliation.’’
 
But Russia proposed changes Thursday, despite initially supporting it, objecting to a proposal that could limit membership of the transitional government in Syria, diplomats said.
 
Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov Thursday said Assad’s fate “must be decided within the framework of a Syrian dialogue by the Syrian people themselves.’’
 
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton rejected any suggestion that Annan was proposing a transition imposed from outside, saying Thursday that Annan’s transition document “is a Syrian-led transition, but you have to have a transition that complies with international standards on human rights, accountable governance, the rule of law.’’
 
Following preparatory meetings between Clinton and Lavrov in St. Petersburg late Friday, Lavrov told reporters there was a chance that world powers would find common ground on how to resolve the conflict in Syria at talks Saturday, but warned that it would be counterproductive to try to impose the outcome of the political transition process in advance.
 
“We have a very good chance to find common ground at the conference in Geneva tomorrow,’’ Lavrov said.
 
One Western diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the Russian delegation pressed its own proposed amendments to Annan’s text during the talks.
 
“The Russians are being difficult. We’re still hoping for a positive outcome from the meeting tomorrow.’’
 
Russian diplomats told Reuters after the meeting that Moscow could not agree to a political solution imposed on Syria.