( CNN ) -- More than 20,000 people -- most of them civilians -- have been killed in Syria 's 18-month crisis . The violence continued unabated Wednesday with fierce attacks reported across the country . Here are the latest developments in the Syrian civil war : . On the ground : The battle for Aleppo intensifies . The Syrian regime touted gains on Wednesday in the quest to control Syria 's largest city and commercial hub , Aleppo : . `` Units from our heroic Syrian armed forces are in confrontations with terrorist armed groups '' in Aleppo , `` inflicting upon them heavy losses in their numbers and equipment , '' state-run TV reported . Regime and rebel fighters have battled for months in Aleppo , where civilians routinely dodge snipers and attacks from the air . On Tuesday , regime forces shelled a bakery in nearby Marea , causing more than a dozen casualties , opposition activists said . Government forces have previously attacked bread lines in Aleppo province , according to human rights groups and U.N. officials . Residents in opposition-friendly areas often wait in lines at night to avoid being targeted by government aircraft . Across the country , at least 172 people were killed in fresh violence on Wednesday , the opposition Local Coordination Committees of Syria said . Sixty-seven of the deaths occurred in Aleppo , it said . World reaction : European official says the world is at a `` deadlock '' on Syria . The European Union is preparing additional funds to support relief through education , food and water , EU foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton said . `` We face a dangerous stalemate , '' she said Tuesday in a statement . `` The truth is that , despite all the efforts , the international community is in a sense at a deadlock ... the U.N. Security Council has not been able to agree on a common response that could open the way for a political solution . '' Humanitarian crisis : 1 in 4 Homs residents are in urgent need of aid . Some 550,000 of the 2.2 million people in Homs province need humanitarian aid , World Health Organization spokesman Tarik Jasarevic said after a U.N. mission composed of health experts visited the embattled province last week . `` The urgency of scaling up delivery of humanitarian aid is exacerbated by the approaching winter , '' he said . About half of the province 's physicians have left , and only about three surgeons remain , he said . Many of the medical facilities across the province have been damaged or destroyed , leaving the few remaining hospitals overwhelmed with patients and short on medicine and supplies . CNN 's Saad Abedine and Holly Yan contributed to this report .
Opposition : The opposition is a group of people who are not in the government and have no official role within it. The Syrian regime says it inflicted `` heavy losses '' on opposition forces in Aleppo . EU official : ` ` We face a dangerous stalemate '' as the world remains deadlocked on Syria .