Syrian President Bashar Assad sent helicopters to back up tanks Sunday in another escalation of violence against protesters — despite a ceasefire that survived no better than the more than 10,000 victims of the regime’s suppression of a 13-month-old protest for reforms.

Most of the fire was aimed at the opposition stronghold of Homs, and dozens of deaths were reported across the country Saturday and Sunday.

The video below was posted by the opposition ShamsSNN and the the audio records shelling almost every second.

The escalation in violence came before the United Nations was able to dispatch 30 unarmed observers, approved by the United Nations Security Council Saturday. The first team of monitors is to be followed by an additional 250 observers, depending on a halt of the violence.

One of the latest casualties was a 26-year-old citizen who was filming tanks shelling buildings in his neighborhood in Homs, which one activist has said has become unrecognizable.

Syria’ government media continued to blame “terrorists” for the bloodshed.

Assad is engaged in an attempt to impose total fear on the civilian population, knowing that he is in a do-or-die struggle. If he does not succeed in silencing the opposition, he faces the same fate as Libya’s Muammar Qaddafi, who was killed at the end of the rebellion, or ousted Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, who is on trial for crimes punishable by death.