21 December 2011 Last updated at 08:18 GMT
Jim Muir says the regime may be trying to "clear up some unfinished business"
Almost 200 people have died in two days of clashes in Syria, activists say, as the violence there intensifies.
Two activist groups put Tuesday's toll at 84 - the majority in Idlib province in the north-west.
Video has emerged of a young boy, whose body was apparently torn in half by shelling in the city of Homs.
The bloodshed comes a day before an advance group of Arab League monitors is due to arrive to oversee the implementation of a peace initiative.
The UN said earlier this month that more than 5,000 people had been killed across Syria since protests against President Bashar al-Assad erupted in March.
Damascus says it is fighting "armed terrorist gangs", who want to destabilise the country.
Surge in violence
In violence on Monday, activists said as many as 110 people may have died in fighting across the country - including 60-70 army deserters apparently gunned down by machine-gun fire close to a village called Kafr Oued in Idlib province.
Activist groups reported fresh violence in this town on Tuesday, with the Local Co-ordination Committees saying 25 people had died there by heavy machine-gun fire and shelling.
Another 34 people died in Idlib province, 14 in Homs, four in Zabadani and Jebeh close to Damascus, three in Hama and two each in Deraa and Aleppo, the group said - bringing the total toll to 84. Another activist group reported the same toll.
Syria's armed forces said they were ready to repulse any foreign aggression
The claims have not been independently verified, as foreign media are banned from reporting in Syria - but all the activist groups reporting agree that there has been a surge in violence, says the BBC's Jim Muir in Beirut, neighbouring Lebanon, with particular concentrations of bloodshed in mountainous parts of Idlib province and the country's third city of Homs.
Video footage emerged on Tuesday, allegedly showing the body of a young boy torn in half in the ruins of two houses hit by army shelling in Homs.
Meanwhile, Syria's air and naval forces conducted live-fire manoeuvres aimed testing their readiness to repulse "any aggression against the homeland," the official Sana news agency reported.
Syrian opposition sources said the army was intensifying its campaign in Idlib ahead of the expected deployment of observers who will monitor the Syrian government's implementation of an Arab League peace initiative.
League officials have said that the first monitors could be in the country as early as Thursday.
Peace plan
This follows the announcement that Damascus had agreed to the observer mission on Monday.
Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem said the country's sovereignty would be protected because the Arab League had agreed to amendments to the deal, which also calls for all violence to be halted, for the withdrawal of troops from the streets, and the release of detainees.
The observers would be "free" in their movements and "under the protection of the Syrian government", Mr Muallem added, but would not be allowed to visit sensitive military sites.
The observers will have a one-month mandate that can be extended by another month if both sides agree.
The leader of the Syrian National Council, an opposition umbrella group, has dismissed the government's decision as "just a ploy".
Activists say that if the government does withdraw the army, many areas will immediately fall out of its control.
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