Syrian warplanes pounded an eastern town on the border with Iraq on Sunday as firefights raged around an army barracks in the northeastern town of Ras al-Ain near Turkey, a watchdog said.

Troops also launched a pre-dawn bombardment of rebel lines near Damascus, after 121 people were reported killed nationwide on Saturday.

Peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi said Wednesday that Syria and "most" rebel chiefs have agreed to a truce this week, boosting hopes of a breakthrough in the conflict, but the main armed opposition group was skeptical.

Syria said it was studying the U.N.-Arab League envoy's initiative for a four-day ceasefire during the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha and would announce its decision on Thursday, the day before it is supposed to take effect.

United Nations Special Coordinator for Lebanon Derek Plumbly noted on Monday that Lebanon is honoring its humanitarian obligations towards the Syrian refugees in the country, which is “winning great credit thereby.”

He stressed again the need for all concerned to commit to keeping the Syrian crisis away from Lebanon “and to give absolute priority to keeping Lebanon safe.”

The Syrian army carried out a major offensive on Qudsaya, west of Damascus, and a neighboring locality on Wednesday and was deploying troops heavily there, a monitoring group and AFP journalists said.

"The army is carrying out a major military operation on the outskirts of Qudsaya and Hameh, shelling the area," said Syrian Observatory for Human Rights director Rami Abdel Rahman, with a large number of arrests taking place.

The World Food Program has sent supplies to Syria's commercial capital Aleppo to help tackle shortages triggered by escalating clashes between troops and rebels, the U.N. agency said on Wednesday.

The WFP "has sent food assistance for distribution to 28,000 people in Aleppo over the next few days, following reports of shortages of food, gas and electricity following weeks of violence," a statement said.

The French Foreign Ministry called Friday for the Syrian military to desert en masse the day after a Syrian air force colonel defected after landing his MiG fighter in Jordan.

"Yesterday's defection leads us to call on members of the Syrian army and security forces to continue these defections, these desertions and no longer to obey the Damascus regime's criminal orders," ministry spokesman Bernard Valero told journalists.

The United Nations on Friday put Major General Robert Mood of Norway, a veteran of troublesome truces, in charge of the force monitoring the faltering ceasefire in Syria.

Mood was already heading for Damascus when U.N. leader Ban Ki-moon publicly announced the nomination, diplomats said.

The United States warned Monday that heightened violence in Syria threatens the sending of a full U.N. ceasefire observer mission as it voiced fear that a ceasefire is "eroding."

The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Susan Rice, said new attacks by government forces "call into question the wisdom and viability" of sending the full 200 international monitors.

U.N. and Arab League envoy Kofi Annan will send a letter to the Security Council Tuesday on Syria, his spokesman said, the day a U.N.-Arab plan to end 13 months of bloodshed is to take effect.

"Mr. Annan will be sending a letter to the Council later today," spokesman Ahmad Fawzi told Agence France Presse.

The Phalange Party condemned on Monday the government’s handling of the electricity crisis in Lebanon, saying that it demonstrated that the concerned sides “showed a complete disregard for laws and international standards in dealing with the decision to lease power-generating vessels.”

It said after its weekly politburo meeting: “The suspicious handling of the crisis raises questions on how trustworthy these sides are in tackling the petroleum file.”