Clinton to meet Lavrov to discuss Syrian crisis

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to meet Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov next week in an effort to gain Russia's cooperation in ending the Syrian crisis.State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland said in a statement on Wednesday that Clinton will meet Lavrov in St. Petersburg, Russia, next Thursday.

The announcement came after US President Barack Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin failed to narrow their differences on Syria in their meeting on Monday in Mexico. They met on the sidelines of the Group of 20 Summit.

The United States is seeking an early resignation of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, while Russia insists on non-interference in Syria's domestic affairs. Escalating violence in Syria has forced UN observers in the nation to suspend their activities.Clinton is expected to ask once again for Russian cooperation for the removal of Assad.

Twenty-eight soldiers and a Shiite Muslim cleric were among 39 people killed in violence across Syria today, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. At least 20 troops were killed in fierce clashes with rebel fighters in the northwestern province of Latakia, the Britain-based watchdog said. Five rebels were also killed in the clashes that began late yesterday and continued through dawn today in a region known as the Kurdish Mountain near the border with Turkey. "The majority died in direct fighting with the rebels, while other soldiers were killed in a rebel attack on two buildings, which the army was using to launch mortar attacks against the Kurdish Mountain," Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman told the news agency. Dozens of soldiers were also wounded, Abdel Rahman said. "A number of soldiers, including an officer, were captured by the rebels, who also took their weapons," he added. In Idlib, another northwestern province that borders Turkey, five government troops were killed when a car bomb exploded at their checkpoint overnight.Explosions and shooting were also heard in the town of Maaret al-Numan, the Observatory said. In the central province of Hama, clashes in the town of Kernaz left three soldiers dead. Shelling by government troops also killed a man and his wife. "Unidentified gunmen assassinated a Shiite cleric in Sayyida Zeinab," the Observatory said, referring to an area of south Damascus that houses a revered Shiite shrine of the same name and is home to many Iraqi refugees