A helicopter strike on Sunday on the town of Kafr Aweid in the Syrian province of Idlib killed at least 11 civilians, five of them children and one woman, said the Observatory.

Amateur video posted on the Observatory facebook page showed horrifying images of the children’s corpses as mourners shouted 
“Allahu akbar! (God is greatest)”.

Government troops also pounded the rebel-held Shaar district of Aleppo, killing 11 people, a rights group said on Sunday.

The Free Syrian Army, meanwhile, was able to control an artillery battalion in al-Zahraa region in Aleppo overnight, following intensive clashes with government forces, Al Arabiya reported citing the Syrian Media Center.

In Damascus, fighting erupted at dawn in the northeast suburb of Harasta, while the army also shelled the southern suburb of Al-Hajar al-Aswad from several directions, according to Al Jazeera.

Explosions also rocked the northeast suburb of Douma, while the rebel Assali and Qadam districts in south Damascus were also bombarded.

The violence came a day after UN and Arab League envoy Lakhdar Brahimi met President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus.

Meanwhile, SANA state news agency said more than 5 million students would return to the country’s 22,000 schools. President Bashar al-Assad has downplayed the violence and the killing of civilians everyday since the beginning of the uprising insisting that everything is under control.

Yesterday, the top commander of Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guard has said that the elite unit has high-level advisers in Lebanon and Syria but remains undecided on whether to send military reinforcements to help save Assad’s regime.

More than 26,000 people have been killed since the uprising against Assad’s rule erupted in March last year, according to activists while the UN puts the toll at 20,000.