80 reported killed in Syrian violence

They mostly included civilians mown down as regime forces launched an assault on a town in central Hama province, monitors said.Fifty-two civilians were among the dead, 40 of them in bombardment and shooting on the town of Latamna, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.The Britain-based monitoring group said other civilians were killed in Tibet al-Imam, also in Hama, as well as in the neighbouring province of Homs, in Idlib to the northwest and Aleppo in northern Syria.Sixteen rebels and 12 regime fighters were also killed nationwide, it said.The latest fighting came despite strong condemnation by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon who slammed President Bashar al-Assads government for stepping up attacks on cities despite agreeing on a truce.At least 77 people were killed across Syria on Thursday and 35 on Friday, most of them civilians, according to figures from the Observatory.According to UN estimates, more than 9,000 people have died in the regimes crackdown on an uprising that began in March 2011, inspired by Arab Spring protests that toppled long-time dictators in Tunisia and Egypt.AFP is unable to confirm the accuracy of the information and the tolls because of draconian curbs placed on journalists by Syrian authorities.--AFP