190 civilians killed in 24 hours in Syria

Accounts of the intensified mayhem in Syria came as Kofi Annan,the special envoy for the United Nations and the Arab League,prepared to convene a high-level meeting in Geneva that includes the five permanent members of the Security Council to rescue his sidelined Syrian peace plan from total irrelevance. Annan told Reuters television that he was optimistic that the meeting,to be convened on Saturday,would be a success.

Tallies by Syrian opposition groups that track casualties reported on Friday that the previous day’s death toll had reached 190 from violence scattered in towns and cities throughout the country. The tallies were detailed could not be confirmed independently.

The largest number was concentrated in the Damascus suburb of Douma,an insurgent enclave about eight miles northwest of the city,according to reports from both the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights,a group based in Britain,and the Local Coordination Committees,a Syria-based group.

A spokesman for the Syrian Observatory said the death toll on Thursday was the worst of any single day this year,with 125 confirmed civilian fatalities as well as 65 deaths of fighters reported but under investigation. The observatory considers a death confirmed when videotape or other documentary evidence identifying the victim is received.

Syria’s Al Dunya TV confirmed the concentration of deadly violence on Douma. “The eradication operations in Douma are based on a ‘surgical approach’ and will continue to exterminate all terrorists,” the station said.

The two Syrian generals who were reported seized appeared in a rebel video. One said he was Maj. Gen. Faraj Shehadeh al Makt,a pilot identified by the video as the highest-ranking officer seized by the insurgency so far. There was no official mention of the second officer,who identified himself as Brig. Gen Ahmad Silaybi.