Syrian government forces kept up their shelling of the town of Yabroud and the surrounding Qalamoun region on Monday.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said fierce clashes took place on Monday between regime forces and rebel militias, including the Al Qaeda affiliate the Nusra Front, as well as the Al Qaeda splinter group the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).
Observatory director Rami Abdul Rahman reported that barrel bombs continued to rain down on the outskirts of Yabroud. Meanwhile, a Jordanian army spokesman said border patrols have shot and killed a gunman who opened fire at them as he and three others tried to cross in from Syria.
The spokesman said the other three were wounded in the Monday dawn exchange.
He declined to disclose their identities.
It is the second clash on the Syrian border since Saturday, when Jordanian patrols returned fire at 10 gunmen in an isolated area, wounding seven and arresting three, according to officials.
Elsewhere, the Syrian army recaptured on Monday Alawite village Maan in central Hama province where rebels "massacred" civilians earlier this month, the Syrian state news agency SANA reported.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that at least 25 members of President Bashar Al-Assad's Alawite sect were killed by Islamist fighters in the village of Maan on 9 February.
SANA, quoting a military source, said "army units have established total control over Maan, after crushing the terrorists who had infiltrated (the village) and committed a massacre against its civilian residents, killing dozens of them, including women."
POSITIONS
Russia said on Monday that sole blame for the lack of progress at Syrian peace talks in Geneva must not be placed on either side and that President Bashar al-Assad's government was "completely justified" in its efforts to make discussion of fighting "terrorism" a top priority.
The Russian Foreign Ministry praised was it called the "positive intent" of the Syrian government delegation at the talks and said mediator Lakhdar Brahimi "should not stray towards unilateral accusations and blame only one side for the stalled dialogue."
Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov reiterated Moscow's support for the United States to work directly with the Syrian government instead of asking Russia to impose pressure on Damascus.
Speaking in Moscow during a joint news conference with his Eritrean counterpart, Lavrov said the majority of the problems in Syria came not from the government, but from "those extremist terrorist groups which have multiplied in Syria."
"Speaking of political pressure, we have always come out in favor of the United States direct work with the authorities of the Syrian Arab Republic," Lavrov said.
Meanwhile, US Secretary of State John Kerry accused Syrian President Bashar Assad of stonewalling in peace talks and called on Russia to push its ally to negotiate with opposition leaders.
"Right now, Bashar al-Assad has not engaged in the discussions along the promised and required standard that both Russia spoke up for and the regime spoke up for," Kerry said during a press conference in Jakarta with Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa.
He said Assad's team "refused to open up one moment of discussion" of a transitional government to replace Assad's regime.
"It is very clear that Bashar Assad is trying to win this on the battlefield instead of coming to the negotiating table in good faith," Kerry said Kerry, who called Syria "a tragedy to the world," also had harsh words for Assad's allies in Moscow.
"Russia needs to be a part of the solution and not be contributing so many more weapons and so much more aid that they are in fact enabling Assad to double down, which is creating an enormous problem," he said.
US officials stated that Kerry headed on Monday from Indonesia to Abu Dhabi for discussions with Emirati officials on the deteriorating situation in Syria, nuclear talks with Iran and the Middle East peace process.
The UAE and other Gulf Arab states have been supportive of the Syrian opposition and Kerry plans to discuss such assistance as well as humanitarian aid, the officials said.
Syria's conflict started as largely peaceful protests against Assad in March 2011 but later degenerated into a civil war in which more than 140,000 people have been killed, according to activists.
The UN's human rights office said in January it has stopped updating the death toll from the war, confirming that it can no longer verify the sources of information that led to its last count of at least 100,000 in late July.
Millions have been driven out of their homes, seeking shelter in neighboring countries and in safer parts of their homeland.
REUTERS/AP/LBCI
To watch Josiane Rahme's report, please click on the VIDEO above