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Syrian government recaptures lost ground
Syrian troops regained control of a rebellious neighbourhood in Damascus on Friday as more than 300 people were reported killed the day before in a sharp escalation of the country's civil war.
Syrian troops regained control of a rebellious neighbourhood in Damascus on Friday as more than 300 people were reported killed the day before in a sharp escalation of the country's civil war.
Fighting has intensified over the past week as rebels closed in on the capital and launched their most serious blow yet on Bashar al-Assad's inner circle, killing top aides in a bomb blast on Wednesday.
National security chief and close Assad adviser General Hisham Ikhtiyar died Friday of wounds suffered in the bombing, the fourth member of Assad's inner circle to die in the blast, according to state-run TV.
State-run TV also said Friday that government troops were fully in control of the rebellious Midan neighbourhood on the southern edge of Damasacus.
The fighting in Midan and several other districts has turned parts of Damascus into combat zones and sent thousands of Syrian families packed in cars streaming across the border into Lebanon.
"Our heroic forces have completely cleansed the Midan area from the terrorist mercenaries," the TV said, employing the term used by authorities to refer to rebels.
It said authorities seized large quantities of weapons including machine guns, explosive belts, rocket-propelled grenades and communications equipment.
Damascus activist Khaled al-Shami said rebels carried out a "tactical" retreat early on Friday to spare civilians further shelling after five days of intense clashes between opposition fighters and regime forces.
Eager to show that authorities were in control, the government took local journalists for a trip to Midan inside two armoured personal carriers.
