Syria Violence Rages as Fierce Fighting Engulfs Damascus

Fierce fighting engulfed Damascus on Monday, inching closer to the heart of the Syrian capital as troops shelled pockets of resistance in the south, east and west, activists said.

The unprecedented escalation was described as a "turning point" in Syria's 16-month uprising by a Local Coordination Committees (LCC) activist based in the central neighborhood of al-Midan.

Following clashes on Sunday, which activists called the most violent in Damascus since the revolt broke out in March 2011, regime forces resumed their assault on parts of the city including Tadamon.

The battles were "the first of their kind. You can say there is a before and after in the Syrian revolution, and the turning point was July 15."

In Tadamon, "mortar shelling resumed in the early morning," said the LCC, adding troops and rebels of the Free Syrian Army also clashed in the western district of Kfar Sousa.

Activists said many residents fleeing Tadamon were seeking shelter in the nearby Palestinian refugee camp of Yarmouk, as well as other areas.

The violence spread later into al-Midan, in what one activist in the neighborhood who identified himself as Abu Musab described as a "negative" development.

"The army is trying to storm al-Midan from two sides, with military vehicles," the activist said. "There are many injured and some killed. We need blood donations."

The military deployed armored vehicles in al-Midan for the first time since the anti-regime uprising broke out in March last year, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

"This is the first time that armored and military transport vehicles have been deployed in al-Midan," Rami Abdel Rahman of the Observatory said.

"Before, the security forces were deployed to suppress protests. Now, we have armed troops engaged in combat," he told Agence France Presse.

Abu Musab said that Free Syrian Army rebels were fighting the troops, but "they are only lightly armed, and cannot stop the armored vehicles."

"I did not sleep all night," a resident of the nearby town of Jaramana told AFP. "It was a real war zone."

Speaking on condition of anonymity, he said he heard "rockets and shooting until the early hours of the morning," and that he saw four armored vehicles heading towards the embattled areas.

A newspaper seller in Ain Tarma, just outside Damascus, said he had to make a long detour in order to reach his workplace on Monday.

"Fighting broke out in the early morning," he said, adding that "RPGs and guns were used."

The pro-government newspaper al-Watan, meanwhile, carried a front page headline apparently addressed to activists that read: "You will never take Damascus."

According to the daily, armed forces were battling "terrorist groups who are trying to take root in the suburban districts" including Tadamon, al-Hajar al-Aswad, Daff al-Shok, Nahr Ayshe, Qadam and Kfar Sousa.

Elsewhere, the town of Qatana, 20 kilometers (12 miles) from Damascus, was shelled.

Troops also pounded the besieged Homs districts of Khaldiyeh, Jurat al-Shiah and Qarabis, while rebels clashed with the army on the edges of the battered neighborhoods.

To the north, regime forces raided the central city of Hama, scene of fierce clashes and a series of loud blasts, the Observatory said.

Troops also raided eastern Deir Ezzor, where snipers shot dead a man, the watchdog said. In the northern province of Aleppo, four rebel fighters were killed.

The Observatory said violence across Syria on Sunday had killed 105 people -- 48 civilians, 16 rebels and 41 soldiers.

According to the watchdog more than 17,000 people have been killed since the uprising erupted against the regime of President Bashar Assad in mid-March last year.