Fresh fighting broke out on the edges of Damascus on Friday, as troops took on rebels in the north, south and east, backed in some areas by tanks and militia, a watchdog said.
"Fierce clashes are raging in Barzeh district pitting rebels against troops and members of the pro-regime popular committees," the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
The north Damascus neighborhood also came under tank fire by the army, the Britain-based group said.
The militiamen were brought in from the Esh al-Warwar district, which has a population mainly drawn from the same Alawite minority as President Bashar al-Assad, it added.
Most of the rebels are from Syria's Sunni Muslim majority.
In its third year, the conflict has grown increasingly sectarian, as Assad's regime has armed militia among the Alawites and other minority groups.
Analysts say the militia have better knowledge of the ground than the largely conscript army and are more adept at street fighting.
The White House said on Thursday that the Syrian government of President Bashar al-Assad has probably used chemical weapons on a small scale in the country's civil war, but insisted that President Barack Obama needed definitive proof before he would take action.
The disclosure created a quandary for Obama, who has set the use of chemical weapons as a "red line" that Assad must not cross, and triggered calls from some hawkish Washington lawmakers for a U.S. military response, which the president has resisted.
In a shift from a White House assessment just days earlier, U.S. officials said the intelligence community believed with "varying degrees of confidence" that the chemical nerve agent sarin was used by Assad's forces against rebel fighters. However, it noted that "the chain of custody is not clear."
The fighting across the country has forced more than 1 million people to flee their homes and seek refuge abroad. Millions have also been displaced inside Syria.
International aid agencies have been pleading for funds to help refugees in neighboring countries such as Jordan and Lebanon. They have also been asking the Syrian government to allow aid convoys into the country and facilitate access to the area inside cities and towns that have been affected by fighting.
Jordan's U.N. Ambassador Prince Zeid al Hussein sent a letter to the U.N. Security Council on Thursday, saying the increasing influx of Syrian refugees had sparked "a grave humanitarian situation" that threatens his country's security and stability. More than 500,000 Syrians have fled to Jordan since the conflict began.
The letter asks members to make a determination that the refugee influx, "if left unchecked and in the absence of the financial assistance required to enable Jordan to cope," constitutes a threat to international peace and security, a statement obtained by AP said. The letter asked the Security Council to invite Jordan to a private meeting on the issue and to visit Jordan as soon as possible.
26 Apr, 2013
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Source: http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2013/04/26/Troops-backed-by-militia-battle-rebels-around-Damascus-.html
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