Empty streets are seen as smoke rises from Aleppo’s Bustan Al Qasr district, due to heavy shelling in the area, yesterday.
BEIRUT: Rebel fighters stormed an army post in a Damascus neighbourhood killing six soldiers, while intense shelling by regime forces sent residents fleeing in panic, a watchdog and activists said yesterday.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least two civilians died when Douma, in the capital’s northeast, was rocked by shelling following the deadly raid by the rebels during the night on a medical centre that has now been taken over by the military.
“The army had transformed the centre into a barracks and snipers were positioned there,” Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman said.
An amateur video posted by activists reported an exodus of residents of Douma and showed several vehicles with women inside driving off in the dark of night.
Troops loyal to President Bashar Al Assad also blasted a string of rebel strongholds in towns and suburbs outside the capital at dawn, including in Babila, Hosh Al Arab, Saqba and Zabadani, the Britain-based Observatory said.
The Local Coordination Committees, an activist network, reported that more than 100 shells fell on Zabadani, once a resort destination known for its mild weather and scenic views just northwest of the capital but now devastated by the civil war ravaging Syria.
Elsewhere in Damascus province, the town of Yabroud came under fierce artillery fire, the LCC said.
The official daily Al Baath yesterday said that the “end of security operations throughout Damascus province” was approaching.
Government forces “have destroyed many weapons caches and seized large quantities of ammunition and equipment (...) which indicates that the end of security operations throughout Damascus province is approaching,” the newspaper said.
Rebels on July 18 carried out a massive bombing on a security complex in Damascus, killing Assad’s brother-in-law, the defence minister and a general.
Since then regime forces have pushed the rebels to the outskirts of the capital but have lost control of several border crossing and are battling to retake Syria’s second city of Aleppo, which has been the focal point of the conflict since mid-July.
The Observatory said that Aleppo’s northeast district of Hanano City again came under bombardment yesterday, a day after 19 civilians were killed in shelling there and other districts.
Fighting between troops and rebels also flared in the Arkoub, Sakhur, Sheikh Khodr and Sheikh Faris districts as well as along Suleiman Al Halabi street in the city centre, the watchdog said.
Rebels and loyalist troops on Monday clashed in the centuries-old Unesco-listed Aleppo souq, days after it was ravaged by a fire sparked by earlier fighting.
Elsewhere in the country yesterday, a civilian was killed during a raid by regime forces in the southern province of Daraa, while two civilians were killed in army shelling in the northwest province of Idlib, the Observatory said.
Meanwhile, Russia told Nato and world powers yesterday they should not seek ways to intervene in Syria’s civil war or set up buffer zones between rebels and government forces.
Moscow further called for restraint between Nato-member Turkey and Syria, where violence along their shared border has strained relations between the former allies.
Tensions have flared since a mortar round fired from inside Syria struck the territory of Turkey. Ankara has threatened to respond if the strike were repeated.
When asked by Interfax if Moscow worried whether the tense border situation could prompt Nato to intervene to defend Turkey, its easternmost member, Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov warned against any such step.
“In our contacts with partners in Nato and in the region, we are calling on them not to seek pretexts for carrying out a military scenario or to introduce initiatives such as humanitarian corridors or buffer zones.”
Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, one of Assad’s most caustic critics, recently lashed out at Russia for blocking efforts at the UN Security Council to exert pressure on Assad and said Moscow’s stance allowed massacres in Syria to continue.
Turkey has floated the idea of setting up “safe zones” inside Syria to protect civilians from the conflict but that would also have to be approved by the Security Council. Russia and China have vetoed three Security Council resolutions condemning Syrian President Bashar Al Assad and have blocked attempts to impose further sanctions on his government or intervene more directly in the conflict.
Ankara has repeatedly complained of artillery and gunfire spilling over the border into Turkey, leading to threats of retaliation.
“We believe both Syrian and Turkish authorities should exercise maximum restraint in this situation, taking into account the rising number of radicals among the Syrian opposition who can intentionally provoke conflicts on the border,” Gatilov was quoted as saying.
The West accuses Russia of supporting Assad in the bloody 18-month conflict and imposing a stalemate in the Security Council as violence in Syria has spiralled.
agencies
