Syria: Deadly Air Strike On Civilian Bakery

Dozens of people have been killed in an air strike on a bakery in Syria's Hama province, according to activists.

Activist Samer al Hamawi said: "There is no way to really know yet how many people were killed. When I got there, I could see piles of bodies all over the ground.

"There were women and children. There are also dozens of wounded people"

Hamawi, who spoke via Skype, uploaded a video of the scene in Halfaya to YouTube, which showed dozens of dust-coated bodies lined up near a pile of rubble by a concrete building, its walls blackened.

The sounds of people screaming could be heard in the video, as some men rushed to the scene on motorcycles and other residents limped away from the area.

Rami Abdelrahman, of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said: "It is still very unclear what the casualties are. From looking at the videos I expect the death toll to be around or above 50, and not higher than 100.

"But for now I am keeping my estimate at dozens killed until we have more information."

The authenticity of the video could not be immediately verified.

Halfaya was seized by rebels last week as part of a campaign to push into new territories in the 21-month-old revolt against President Bashar al Assad,

Another activist said residents picking through the bodies were still determining which were wounded and which were dead.

Shortages of fuel and flour have made bread production erratic across the country, and people often wait for hours to buy bread.

New York based Human Rights Watch condemned army air strikes on bakeries earlier this year, arguing that in some incidents the military was not using enough precision to target rebel sites and in other instances may have intentionally hit civilians.

Meanwhile, Syrian Information Minister Umran Ahid al Za'bi said the rebels and their foreign allies should "forget" trying to topple Assad.

In what is being perceived as a move away from the more conciliatory tone of the Syrian vice president, who said neither side could win the war, al Za'bi said: "These military efforts to try to topple the government, of getting rid of the president, of occupying the capital ... forget about this.

"I have general advice to those political powers that reject dialogue: time is getting short. Hurry and move on to working on a political solution."