Syrian Forces storm rebel-controlled town

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's forces killed at least 12 people on Saturday and injured 30 in a bombardment of suburbs of Damascus that have fallen under rebel control, activists said. About half of those killed were civilians.

The rest were army defectors loosely grouped under the Free Syrian Army, they said. 

Most casualties were from anti-aircraft gunfire and mortar rounds that hit the suburbs of Saqba, Hammouriya and Kfar Batna on the eastern edge of the Syrian capital, they added.

Syrian government forces killed at least five civilians on Sunday in an attack to take back large suburbs of the capital Damascus that had fallen under rebel control, activists said.

Around 2,000 soldiers in buses and armored personnel carriers, along with at least 50 tanks and armored vehicles moved at dawn into the eastern Ghouta area on the edge of Damascus to reinforce troops surrounding the suburbs of Saqba, Hammouriya and Kfar Batnba, they said.

Syria said the Arab League's suspension of its monitoring mission in the country was an attempt to influence the United Nations Security Council and increase pressure for foreign intervention, state television said on Saturday.    

"This will have a negative impact and put pressure on (Security Council) deliberations with the aim of calling for foreign intervention and encouraging armed groups to increase violence," a news flash on Syria Television said.    

The Arab League said on Saturday it suspended its mission due to rising violence in Syria, which is trying to crush a 10-month revolt against President Bashar al-Assad's rule. 

The League called on Assad to step down last week and is meeting with the Security Council in the coming days to discuss an Arab peace plan. 

"Syria is still committed to the success of the Arab monitoring mission and to protecting the mission observers," the news flash said.