Al Arabiya , 11 June 2012 – Severe clashes were reported at the Damascus neighborhood of al-Abbaseen overnight between the Syrian government forces and the Free Syrian Army (FSA), Al Arabiya reported on Monday citing the Syrian Media Center.

At least 59 people have been killed by the Syrian forces on Sunday, activists at the Syrian Revolution Commission said. The victims, mostly in Homs, included five women and a photojournalist, they said.

Loud explosions were reported at al-Saleeba in Lattakia; while al-Heffa region was shelled by missiles and mortar shells, activists said.
Intensive shelling was reported in al-Attareb region in Aleppo amid fears of possible new massacre in the region, activists at the Local Coordination Committees said.

Shelling was also reported in Harasta in Damascus suburbs; Karnaz in Hama and al-Ashara in the outskirts of Deor Ezzor, where clashes were reported between government forces and rebel troops.

The new head of Syria’s main opposition group called Sunday for mass defections from a Syrian regime struggling to survive by carrying out massacres, as the death toll in the uprising topped 14,000.

Similar calls were made by the rebel FSA, which also urged a campaign of mass “civil disobedience” to ratchet up internal pressure on President Bashar al-Assad’s beleaguered regime.

“We are entering a sensitive phase. The regime is on its last legs,” Kurdish activist Abdul Basset Sayda told Al Arabiya shortly after being named the new leader of the opposition Syrian National Council (SNC).

“The multiplying massacres and shelling show that it is struggling,” he said of mass deaths of civilians, the most recent of which saw 20 people, mostly women and children, killed in a bombardment of the southern city of Deraa Saturday.

At his first news conference since taking over the reins, Sayda called on all members of the Damascus regime to defect, while reaching out to minority groups by promising them a full say in a future, democratic Syria.