Syrian air force steps up attacks in south

The Syrian army intensified its aerial bombardment today of southern Syria as opposition fighters were preparing to launch a wide offensive in a province bordering Jordan, activists said.
The Local Coordination Committees opposition network and an anti-government activist in the area said air raids and government shelling in the southern province of Daraa killed at least two people today.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, another activist group, reported that air strikes on several areas in Daraa killed a man and a child.
It said warplanes and helicopter gunships attacked the towns of Enkhil and Ghabagheb, as well as the village of Naima and the capital of Daraa province that carries the same name.

Daraa is where Syria's uprising started nearly three years ago with anti-government protests that later spread throughout the country. It turned into a civil war that has killed more than 140,000 people, according to opposition activists.
The army in recent days also has stepped up its use of barrel bombs in deadly air strikes on rebel-held areas of Daraa. The crude bombs, barrels filled with explosives, fuel and scraps of metal, had so far been used mostly against rebel held areas in the northern city of Aleppo and near Damascus, Syria's capital.
An amateur video released by activists showed smoke billowing from Naima after being struck by barrel bombs. Another video showed men running through dust created by a strike in the city of Daraa before reaching a two-story house bombed into a pile of rubble. A man could be heard shouting in the background: "My father!"

The videos appeared genuine and corresponded with Associated Press reporting of the attacks.