Damascus turns battlefield

Syrian government forces attacked rebels with helicopter gunships in the heart of Damascus on Tuesday, escalating a campaign to crush their opponents as clashes spread to new areas, illustrating the rebels’ growing reach.

Syrian government forces attacked rebels with helicopter gunships in the heart of Damascus on Tuesday, escalating a campaign to crush their opponents as clashes spread to new areas, illustrating the rebels’ growing reach.

HT Image

Cracks of gunfire and explosions echoed inside the capital for a third day, including a firefight near the Parliament, in an unprecedented challenge to government rule in President Bashar Assad’s seat of power.

Assad has made no public statements since the deaths of Assef Shawkat, the architect of the crackdown, defence minister Daoud Rajha and military committee member Hassan Turkmani on Wednesday.

Officials in Damascus said Assad was hard at work in his office. Activists and residents said he was in the family palace in Latakia — the coastal city in the Alawite heartland that serves as a power base of his Alawite sect, not his regime.

There have been no calls for calm from Assad, no messages of reassurance to a country that is entering the unknown and whose confidence in the state has clearly been shaken by Wednesday’s events. The 46-year-old leader may be wanting to project an image of business as usual.

Plumes of grey smoke billowed over the Damascus skyline and helicopter gunships strafed the area, activists said — a sign the regime is growing desperate to push the rebels away from the heavily guarded capital.

Terrified families fled the city or said they were prepared to leave at a moment’s notice. Residents said they were packing “getaway bags” in case they had to run for their lives.

The Damascus clashes were a sign the civil war was likely to worsen as the Syrian regime struggles to halt the opposition’s growing momentum.