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afp
Beirut
Heavy fighting gripped a flashpoint region near Syria's capital on Sunday, leaving seven civilians dead and threatening a nationwide truce designed to pave the way towards peace talks.
The escalating violence across Syria in recent days augurs ill for peace negotiations in Kazakhstan later this month.
In the Wadi Barada region northwest of Damascus, fresh clashes broke out between rebel groups and advancing government forces, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
Regime shelling of the Deir Qanun village killed seven civilians and wounded at least 20 other people, the Britain-based monitor said.
Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman said it was the"highest toll" there since the nationwide truce came into force on December 30.
Omar al-Shami, spokesman for the Wadi Barada Media Committee, told AFP shells struck a temporary shelter where displaced women and children had been seeking refuge.
The activist group published gruesome pictures of what it said was the aftermath of the attack, including photographs of blood-stained floors and body parts wrapped in blankets.
Fighting has persisted for weeks in Wadi Barada, which is the main source of water for the capital.
Local officials struck a truce with Syrian authorities on Friday to allow maintenance teams into Wadi Barada to restore water to Damascus, but the deal was called off after chief negotiator Ahmed al-Ghadban was killed the next day.
The two sides accused each other of assassinating the retired army officer, who had only assumed his duties to restore the water supply on Saturday.
"The agreement was considered null this morning after the regime's multiple violations and especially after the killing of the negotiations official," Shami said.
Shami told AFP the government's maintenance workers left Wadi Barada without completing the repairs, leaving 5.5 million in Damascus and its suburbs without water.
An official from Syria's reconciliation ministry earlier told AFP the local deal in Wadi Barada"had not completely collapsed".
"We are communicating and pursuing new efforts in parallel with the ongoing military action," the official said.
Many of Syria's battlefronts have quieted since the entry into force of the nationwide ceasefire brokered by regime backer Russia and opposition ally Turkey.
