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Al Arabiya With Agencies

A video released by Syrian activists Thursday showed an aid convoy they say belongs to the regime forces ambushed in a road near Kafar Naboodah area in the suburbs of Hama.

Activists said the ambush was part of a battle launched by several opposition fighting groups to seize control of Hamah after winning battles against regime forces in the city’s suburbs.

Elsewhere in the country, clashes were reported Thursday in Deraa, a province bordering Jordan that has become a focal point of battles as both sides seek to control Syria’s frontiers and seize supply lines to the capital, Damascus.

The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said dozens of civilians, including children, were killed on Wednesday in shelling and summary executions after forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad entered Sanamein.

The Observatory also published video showing the bodies of10 people, seven of whom it said were aged 17 or under and had been killed by “shabbiha” fighters loyal to Assad in the western province of Homs, according to local residents.

President Assad has exploited his greatest advantage in the Syrian civil war - the air power - to push back rebel advances and prevent the opposition from setting up a rival government in its northern stronghold.

The Human Rights Watch report said Assad’s air force has dropped “imprecise and inherently indiscriminate” munitions, including cluster bombs, on civilian areas.

The planes have also hit civilian areas with makeshift bombs, made from hundreds of pounds (kilograms) of explosives stuffed into barrels. HRW even found unexploded naval mines on sites hit by airstrikes in northern Syria.

“They seem to be using pretty much everything they have to bomb places,” they said.

Officials in Damascus could not immediately be reached for comment on the Human Rights Watch report. The Syrian government describes the rebels as foreign-backed terrorists set on destroying the country.

HRW also criticized the Free Syrian Army and other opposition groups for not taking measures to avoid deploying forces and headquarters in or near densely populated areas.