BEIRUT (AP) - There are reports of violence coming from multiple locations in Syria today.
Activists say government shelling has killed at least 17 people in Daraa. The southern city is where the uprising against President Bashar Assad's regime first erupted in March of last year.
There are also reports of shelling and clashes between government troops and rebels in the central city of Homs.
And in the capital, residents are describing a night of shooting and explosions. Witnesses say government tanks opened fire in the streets of Damascus for the first time since the uprising began. The nearly 12 hours of fighting suggests a new boldness among armed rebels, who previously kept a low profile in the capital.
Meanwhile, U.N. observers in the country have issued the first independent video images from the scene of a reported massacre last week in a remote farming village. Activists say up to 78 people, including women and children, were shot, hacked and burned to death in the incident. The U.N. says there's evidence of a "horrific crime" in the village.