(Newser)
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As many as 190 are believed to have been killed in Syria yesterday, including up to 139 civilians, in what activists said was deadliest day of the uprising so far. Casualties poured in from across the country as Bashar al-Assad's forces clashed with the opposition Free Syrian Army, but the heaviest were in the mostly-Sunni city of Douma. In one incident there, regime soldiers allegedly spotted a man filming them, rounded up his entire family, and killed them all, the New York Times reports.
Meanwhile, the head of the FSA reports that the regime has amassed 170 tanks near the Turkish border, the Telegraph reports. That escalation comes as countries meet for an international crisis meeting in Geneva tomorrow. Kofi Annan says he's "optimistic" about his plan to create a unity government that includes Assad officials and rebels, but not Assad himself. But Russia says it opposes regime change and Assad doesn't appear ready to compromise; in an interview on Iranian TV yesterday, he said he had "a responsibility to annihilate terrorists," his term for the opposition.
