Attacks on civilians in Syria haven t abated despite a United Nations resolution two months ago that called on government forces and rebels to curb bombing and shelling of residential areas, according to a new report from Human Rights Watch (HRW) released Tuesday. Since a Feb. 22 resolution by the U.N. Security Council called for the end of barrel bomb attacks on civilians, HRW says it has documented 85 separate attacks by the Syrian government on residential areas "including two government barrel bomb attacks on clearly marked official hospitals."

UN human rights investigators say the Syrian government is using what they call "enforced disappearances" as part of a widespread campaign of terror against civilians. Thousands of people have been taken away, with most never seen again, their report says. Disappearances on such a scale could be a crime against humanity, it adds.

Typhoid has broken out in an opposition-held region of Syria due to people drinking contaminated water from the Euphrates River, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has said. An estimated 2,500 people in northeastern Deir az-Zor province have been infected with the contagious disease, which causes diarrhoea and can be fatal, the UN agency said on Tuesday.

Mr. Nasrallah also emphasized the deep connections between Lebanon and Syria. "We, as Lebanon, cannot close the border with Syria, with our understanding of the political, security and economic risks for this massive displacement," he said. "We must recognize that Lebanon is a country mostly affected by what is going on around it, especially in Syria, because of sectarian and political diversity, and conflict of interest," he said.

As many as 400 people were killed in Syria on Saturday in the deadliest single day since the civil war began almost two years ago, according to opposition group reports that government troops carried out a mass killing of civilians at a petrochemical university.

At least 20 people, including eight children, have been killed after Syrian army tanks shelled a village in the northern province of al-Raqqa, an activist group has said. Dozens of other civilians were also injured by the government's attacks in the village of Qahtania on Wednesday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported.