More than 245 bodies were found in the past two days in a Damascus suburb, a longtime flashpoint in war-torn Syria, opposition activists said.

Regime opponents posted video of mass burials Sunday, a day after scores were found dead in Daraya. The deaths are among the most grisly examples of carnage in the nearly 18-month-long crisis.

“Daraya is being targeted because it is the closest to the capital, and it is one of the first cities that revolted against the Assad regime and was the spearhead of the peaceful demonstrations in the beginning of the revolution,” said Rafif Jouejati, a spokeswoman for the opposition Local Coordination Committees of Syria.

It was unclear when those people had been killed. Dissidents say government troops reclaimed Daraya after a weeklong siege that was followed by scores of summary executions.

The state-run Syrian Arab News Agency said government troops had cleared the city of “terrorists,” and a pro-government television network Sunday aired scenes of residents thanking Syrian soldiers for driving out opposition fighters, whom the report blamed for the deaths.

But CNN spoke by Skype to an activist named Osama, who said the army moved into a neighborhood Friday and swept through buildings where families were taking cover. At least 50 bodies were found in one apartment basement, he said.

CNN cannot independently verify reports of death tolls, as the Syrian regime has severely limited access by international journalists.

A regime helicopter crashes in Damascus suburb

An attack helicopter burst into flames and crashed in the city of Jobar on Monday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

The opposition group said the aircraft was apparently struck by rebels who were clashing with pro-regime forces in the Damascus suburb.

CNN cannot independently confirm the authenticity of videos posted on the reported crash.

Deaths mount across Syria, opposition says

At least 77 people were killed Monday, the Local Coordination Committees of Syria said.

At least 47 of those were slain Damascus and its suburbs. Others died in the provinces of Homs, Deir Ezzor, Hama, Daraa and Idlib. The LCC reported a siege on the town of Madeeq Citadel in Hama and shelling across the country.

“Regime forces are intensely shelling the old quarters of Homs, a district under siege for 81 consecutive days,” the LCC said.

Opposition activists say well over 20,000 people have been killed in Syria since March 2011.

Government reports gains in Aleppo

Soldiers in Aleppo on Monday “cleared al-Izaa neighborhood” of “terrorists, the state-run Syrian Arab News Agency said.

“The security forces stormed a den for the armed terrorist groups in al-Inzarat Neighborhood in Aleppo and seized a huge amount of ammunition and weapons. SANA’s reporter in Aleppo said that the seized weapons include PKC machineguns, Russian rifles, pump-action shotguns, ammunition and a large quantity of bombs.”

Government forces and their allies have been fighting rebels for control of Syria’s largest city. The LCC reported “fierce artillery shelling by regime forces” in Aleppo’s Bab district.

Refugee crisis worsens in Jordan

UNICEF is urgently appealing for more money to help the throng of Syrian refugees escaping to Jordan.

About 17,000 people — half of them children — are sheltered at Za’atari refugee camp in the north of Jordan, but numbers are increasing daily with hundreds of new arrivals from Syria, the agency said.

Syrians fleeing violence have been racing to Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey, and Iraq and to safe locations inside the country.

“We expect to have 70,000 people at Za’atari camp by the end of this year,” said Dominique Hyde, a UNICEF Jordan representative. “We must act now because it is children who continue to suffer most. So more funding is urgently required to scale up our emergency response activities.”

— CNN’s Salma Abdelaziz, Joe Sterling, Holly Yan, Yousuf Basil and Saad Abedine contributed to this report.