128 Dead as Regime Launches All-Out Damascus Assault amid Fierce Fighting in Aleppo

Syrian forces launched an all-out assault on opposition strongholds in Damascus Friday amid unprecedented fierce fighting in the city of Aleppo, Syria’s second city, a day after rebels seized crossings on the Iraq and Turkey borders on the 16-month conflict's deadliest day so far.

Rebel fighters also clashed with troops in several neighbourhoods of Aleppo in what a human rights watchdog said was the fiercest fighting so far in Syria's second city.

State television trumpeted the news of the military's Damascus offensive.

"Our brave army forces have completely cleansed the area of Midan in Damascus of the remaining mercenary terrorists and have re-established security," it said, using the regime term for rebels.

Reporters taken on a regime-organized trip saw three bodies, empty streets, shuttered shops and buildings pockmarked with bullet holes.

A security services source told Agence France Presse the military has launched a general offensive in Damascus.

The assault comes after a Wednesday bombing that killed four senior members of the regime, including the national security chief, who died on Friday.

General Hisham Ikhtiyar had been wounded along with Interior Minister Mohammed al-Shaar in the National Security headquarters bombing, which was claimed by the Free Syrian Army (FSA).

Defense Minister General Daoud Rajha, President Bashar Assad's brother-in-law Assef Shawkat and General Hassan Turkmani, head of the regime's crisis cell on the uprising, were all killed in the explosion.

A state funeral was held for the three in Damascus on Friday ahead of their burials in their native provinces, the official SANA news agency reported, adding that Vice President Farouq al-Sharaa had attended but not Assad himself.

After Wednesday's bombing, a security source warned that the regime would step up its operations against the rebels.

"The army has so far exercised restraint in its operations, but after the attack, it has decided to use all the weapons in its possession to finish the terrorists off," the source said.

State television broadcast footage it said was from Damascus showing weaponry reportedly captured from rebels, including material marked "Made in USA," as well as scenes of prisoners seated on the ground, their hands bound.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that regime forces stormed the Jubar neighborhood of Damascus.

"Syrian regular forces, including trucks and cars packed with heavily armed men, stormed the district of Jubar," the Britain-based watchdog said.

The Observatory also reported what it said was the fiercest fighting so far between troops and rebel fighters in Syria's second city Aleppo.

"Violent clashes are taking place in the Salaheddin, Azimiyeh, Akramiyeh and Ard el-Sabbagh neighborhoods between the regular army and the rebels," the watchdog said, reporting unspecified "casualties."

It said 16 people were killed in Aleppo, 10 of them civilians. They were among 128 people dead nationwide, including 85 civilians, at least seven of them children.

The Observatory said 302 people were killed on Thursday, the deadliest day of the uprising so far.

Clashes took place even on Syria's frontiers, activists and witnesses said.

An AFP photographer reported that FSA fighters fought a raging battle with Syrian troops at the Bab al-Hawa border post with Turkey and that some 150 rebels controlled the crossing on Friday.

On Thursday, Iraq's deputy interior minister Adnan al-Assadi told AFP that the FSA had seized control of all three crossings along their common border.

At the al-Bukamal border point, an AFP photographer saw a watchtower apparently empty and crossing buildings deserted.

He reported that a poster of Assad had the head torn off, and that no flags were raised above the border point.

Despite the bloodshed, demonstrations were held in several cities, the Observatory reported. Most were small but the watchdog said troops had opened fire on one large protest in Aleppo.

As the bloodshed raged, the exodus of Syrians into neighboring countries intensified. Up to 30,000 Syrians fled into Lebanon in the 48 hours to Friday, the U.N. refugee agency said.