Meanwhile, the Sham FM radio said armed men stopped a passenger bus in Andan area in Aleppo and set it on fire, killing 14 civilian passengers.

Other pro-government media said armed groups opened fire on the Syrian troops in the northern province of Idlib and suburbs of the capital Damascus such as Douma, Harasta, Zamalka and Arbeen.

The army responded to the attacks and killed a number of " terrorists," the reports said.

Opposition activists, meanwhile, said the Syrian war jets raided the restive eastern suburbs of Damascus and killed many people.

The Local Coordination Committees, an activists' network, said 39 people were killed Saturday nationwide.

With the conflicting parties blaming each other, hopes for a workable cease-fire proposed by UN-Arab League joint special representative Lakhdar Brahimi have faded away.

Brahimi has been shuttling among regional countries to push for the truce during the four-day Eid al-Adha as a prelude for further pacification. However, the Muslim feast started on Friday and the violence continued unabatedly.