International envoy Kofi Annan acknowledged the failure so far of his mission to bring peace to Syria.

In comments published in French by the Le Monde newspaper, Annan was quoted as saying that significant efforts had been made to try to resolve the crisis peacefully and politically.

Al-Mustaqbal parliamentary bloc leader MP Fouad Saniora accused on Saturday the cabinet of covering up for “criminals and assassination groups,” wondering if Prime Minister Najib Miqati is waiting until all the opposition leaders are “liquidated” until he decides to hand over the telecommunications data.

“The citizens are wondering if the assassination bids returned while the cabinet is still under the influence of the political rift,” Saniora said at a national gathering in Majdelyoun.

Regime forces bombarded a string of towns in Aleppo province on Saturday, as at least 19 people were killed in violence across Syria, monitors said.

"Regime forces are attempting to regain control over this (Aleppo) region, where they suffered heavy casualties over the past months to rebels," the the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, adding that the bombardment killed a civilian and wounded dozens in the town of Qabtan al-Jabal.

Three people were killed and another seven injured on Saturday as shells and Rocket Propelled Grenades landed on the northern area of Wadi Khaled from the Syrian side of the border, the National News Agency reported.

NNA said gunfire erupted near the northern and northeastern border with Lebanon between Syrian troops and gunmen at dawn and was followed by intense shelling.

U.N. leader Ban Ki-moon urged the U.N. Security Council on Friday to reduce the number of unarmed military observers in Syria and put more stress on political efforts to end the conflict.

Ban recommends in a report that the mission in Syria with a "reduced military observer component" be redeployed to the capital Damascus, from regional cities where the conflict has grown in recent weeks.

Syria's Manaf Tlass, a top general with close ties to President Bashar Assad, has been transformed from a "golden boy" of the Damascus regime into a member of a growing dissident movement with his defection.

The change comes after the regime brutally repressed dissent in his hometown of Rastan in Homs province of central Syria.

Republican U.S. Senator John McCain, Ranking Member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, on Friday held talks with Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat, wrapping up a two-day visit to Lebanon.

After the meeting, McCain clarified that he was not referring to Lebanon when he mentioned Thursday the need to create a safe zone for the Syrian opposition, noting that Turkey or Jordan could provide such a haven.

The head of the main opposition Syrian National Council hailed Friday the defection of a top general as a major blow to President Bashar Assad's regime and said they wanted to work with him.

"This is a major blow to the Assad regime," Abdel Basset Sayda told journalists at a meeting in Paris. "We cannot comment where he is. We are going to seek some cooperation with him. We call for other defections.

At least 55 people were killed across Syria on Friday as protesters took to the streets in several provinces after being urged to call for a "People's liberation war."

The Local Coordination Committees, the main activist group spurring protests on the ground, said regime forces killed 16 people in the countryside around Damascus, 11 in Daraa, nine in Idlib, eight in Homs, four in Damascus and two in Hama.

The U.N. Human Rights Council on Friday tightened pressure on Syria with a new resolution condemning the violence there and demanding all sides abide by envoy Kofi Annan's peace plan.

Forty-one of the 47 members of the council voted in favor of the resolution lodged by the United States and Turkey.