At least 50 dead as Syria shells cities

DAMASCUS, Syria, Jan. 15 (UPI) —

At least 50 people were killed across Syria Tuesday as regime forces shelled major cities and government warplanes assaulted the nation’s capital, rebels said.

The rebel Local Coordination Committees of Syria said at least 15 people, including eight children, were killed in Houla by regime shelling, CNN reported.

Tanks were shown on video shelling a highway near the town.

In a video posted on YouTube, a body was seen being pulled from rubble in Aleppo. Three people in Aleppo were reported wounded in a residential area of Aleppo by shelling from a warplane.

Government forces shelled the city of Homs three times, rebels said, killing and injuring dozens of people.

Separately, two Syrian generals captured by rebels pleaded with President Bashar Assad to free them in exchange for "50 innocent civilians."

They said they were being treated well by members of the rebel Free Syrian Army, but that they had not yet received any response from Assad.

In a letter to the U.N. Security Council, the French foreign minister called for aggressive action against Assad and urged the International Criminal Court to try him as a war criminal.