BEIRUT: Syrian air force jets bombarded rebel targets yesterday close to the Damascus airport road and a regional airline said foreign carriers had halted flights to the capital.
Activists said security forces clashed with rebels trying to topple President Bashar al-Assad around Aqraba and Babilla districts on the southeastern outskirts of Damascus which lead to the international airport.
Internet connections and most telephone lines were down for a second day, the worst communications outage in a 20-month-old uprising in which 40,000 people have been killed and hundreds of thousands forced to flee the country.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said the conflict had reached “new and appalling heights of brutality and violence”.
An aviation source said two Syrian Air flights crossed Jordanian air space heading for the Syrian capital and that Damascus airport was open, although international airlines were staying away. The head of the national airline Syria Air said its services were operating according to schedule, state television reported.
EgyptAir and Emirates have suspended flights to Damascus in response to the recent violence and there was no sign that Air Arabia and flydubai had flown scheduled trips yesterday. “Airlines are not operating to Damascus today,” said a Dubai-based airline official.
At least 12 Lebanese gunmen were killed in a Syrian army ambush in the central Syrian province of Homs, a security source said, highlighting how Lebanon’s neighbours are being dragged into the war.
Reuters
