Death, chaos continue in Syria as heavy fighting kills 40

At least 40 people, including women and children, were killed during operations allegedly carried out across Syria on Sunday by government forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad, according to opposition activists. 

Air and land operations involving heavy weaponry killed 13 in Aleppo, nine in the suburbs of the capital Damascus, six in Homs, five in Idlib, three in Hama, and two each in Daraa and Latakia, according to the London-based Syrian Network for Human Rights, which tracks civilian and opposition casualties.

The Syrian Revolution General Commission (SRGC) claimed that a large number of government troops were killed in an ambush by the Free Syrian Army (FSA) in Kalamun, Damascus.

Assad forces launched heavy weapon attacks on the southern Muleiha district of Damascus, and clashes erupted between FSA and government troops around the Yarmouk refugee camp in the south of the capital, the SRGC added. 

The Commission further said that a large number of residential areas were heavily damaged when army helicopters dropped barrel bombs in opposition-controlled areas in Aleppo, and the capital suburbs of Douma and Darayya.

Syria's official news agency SANA claimed that government forces cleared several regions of armed groups in various operations launched across Aleppo, Daraa, Idlib and Homs.

Syria has been gripped by almost constant fighting since the government launched a violent crackdown in response to anti-government protests in March 2011, triggering a conflict, which has spiralled into a civil war.

The UN has stopped updating its death toll for the country because an official count had become too difficult to verify. At least 100,000 deaths were recorded in the last official count in July 2013.

More than 100,000 people have been killed during the three-year conflict, which has left more than 6.5 million people internally displaced according to the UN. Nearly 2.5 million Syrians are also registered as refugees in neighbouring countries, including Turkey, Lebanon and Iraq.

Militant Islamic group seizes oil field in Syria 

The hardline militant group, the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL), captured an oil field on Sunday in Syria's eastern Deir ez-Zor city, which was controlled by armed opposition forces.

According to the opposition-aligned MASAR news agency, the militants seized control over Kharta oil field after two days of fierce clashes in the region with the Syrian opposition group, Al-Mujahideen Brigades.

Reports say a fire erupted in an oil pipeline which was hit during the fighting.

The SRGC stated that the electricity and water supply had been cut off across the city early Sunday.

ISIL is a hardline militant group fighting in the northern and eastern regions of war-torn Syria, in a bid to establish their own state. The group is also present in Iraq, as its name indicates.