Syria killings spike as diplomacy heats up

Syrian security forces have stepped up a deadly crackdown on dissent, as activists said almost 100 people died in two days of violence ahead of a bid to condemn Damascus at the UN Security Council.

The head of the Arab League monitoring mission in Syria said that, since Tuesday, unrest had soared "in a significant way", especially in the flashpoint central cities of Homs and Hama and in the northern Idlib region.

The violence, which for the first time cost lives in Aleppo, Syria's second-largest city, "does not help prepare the atmosphere ... to get all sides to sit at the negotiating table," General Mohammed Ahmed Mustafa al-Dabi said on Friday.