BEIRUT - Syrian forces bombarded rebel districts south-east of Damascus on Tuesday in a sustained counter-attack to stem rebel gains around the capital.
The fighting around Damascus has led foreign airlines to suspend flights and prompted the United Nations and European Union to scale down their presence in the capital, adding to a sense that the fight is closing in on Syrian President Bashar Assad's power base.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 200 people were killed across Syria on Monday, more than 60 of them around Damascus. Assad's forces bombarded districts to the south-east of the capital on Tuesday, near the international airport, and in the rebel bastion of Daraya to the south-west.
In central Damascus, shielded for many months from the full force of a civil war in which 40,000 people have been killed, one resident reported hearing several loud explosions.
"I have heard four or five thunderous blows. It could be barrel bombs," she said, referring to makeshift bombs which activists say Assad's forces have dropped from helicopters on rebel areas.