The UN has warned that violence in Syria is getting worse as the military steps up assaults on civilian centres and the opposition increasingly turns to co-ordinated attacks on government forces.“The secretary-general expresses his deep concern at the dangerous intensification of armed violence across Syria over the past several days, and the grave danger facing civilians in areas under fire,” Ban Ki-moon’s office said in a statement. “The bloodshed and fighting must stop at once.”It said unarmed UN observers in Syria have reported an increased level of armed clashes between government and rebel forces.The UN observer force, known as UNSMIS, has also been observing “planned and co-ordinated attacks [by rebels] on government forces and civilian infrastructure in multiple locations”.Violence in Syria has spiked in recent weeks, as both sides ignore a peace plan crafted by UN-Arab league envoy Kofi Annan.In the US, state department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland voiced fears that Syrian government was planning a “massacre” in the opposition stronghold of Haffeh, near Turkey.She said Washington shared the alarm of Annan, who described reports of mortar bombs, helicopters and tanks being used in Haffeh, as well as government shelling of the city of Homs on Monday.
