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Heavy clashes hit Syrian capital for second day

Dunya News

Syria's military deployed armoured vehicles in Damascus as troops battled rebels around capital.

Syrian rebels fired at tanks in Damascus residential districts, armored vehicles blocked the main entrances to a neighborhood and protesters briefly barricaded a main highway into the city with bricks and burning tires, leaving hundreds of cars backed up in some of the worst clashes to hit the tightly controlled capital since the uprising began 16 months ago.The scenes from the second straight day of fierce clashes in Damascus, unfolding in amateur videos posted online, were the latest evidence that Syrias conflict is fast devolving into a civil war that is moving ever closer to the seat of President Bashar Assads power.Plumes of black smoke drifted over the city skyline and gunfire could be heard throughout the capital, even in the upscale cafes in downtown frequented by members of Assads regime. The fighting left many streets deserted in a string of neighborhoods on the citys southwest corner where the fighting was focused. Many families have fled, and fear grips many who remain behind.It is a war here, a war, said a woman reached by phone in the Midan neighborhood who said her 5-year-old son had not stopped screaming since the clashes started. She didnt give her name for fear of repercussions from Syrian security.It seems there is a new strategy to bring the fighting into the center of the capital, Mustafa Osso, an activist inside Syria, told The Associated Press, referring to the rebels who fight under the banner of the Free Syrian Army. The capital used to be safe. This will trouble the regime.The violence in Syria has grown increasingly bloody and chaotic in recent months as the uprising has morphed from a peaceful revolt into an armed insurgency aimed at toppling Assads regime.Mondays fighting in Damascus was concentrated in the neighborhoods of Kfar Souseh, Midan and Tadamon, according to Osso and the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The Observatory said there were casualties but did not provide a number.An amateur video posted online showed several gunmen, some of them masked, as they ran or opened fire in the streets of Tadamon. Other gunmen took positions behind sand bag fortifications and fired toward areas where government forces were said to be taking positions.Another video showed Kfar Souseh with the sound of intense gunfire in the distance. The presidential palace, on a mountain overlooking the capital, could be seen in the background.The authenticity of the videos could not be independently confirmed.There have been sporadic clashes in Damascus in recent months, although President Bashar Assads forces remain firmly in control of the city. Many of the Damascus suburbs, however, have risen up against the regime, prompting a ferocious response from the military in an attempt to clear out rebel fighters from the towns that ring the capital.On Monday, activists reported government attacks in the Damascus suburb of Qatana.Rami Abdul-Rahman, who heads the Observatory, said Mondays fighting was taking place about 2 kilometers (1 mile) from the airport highway.