Violence engulfs Damascus, choppers strafe capital

Helicopter gunships today strafed Damascus neighbourhoods and blasts shook another district hours after rebels announced the launch of a full-scale offensive on the capital, activists said.

Helicopter gunships today strafed Damascus neighbourhoods and blasts shook another district hours after rebels announced the launch of a full-scale offensive on the capital, activists said.

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From the early hours, "regime forces used helicopters fitted with heavy machineguns to attack the (eastern Damascus) district of Qaboon," the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Witnesses also reported heavy machinegun fire in Sabaa Bahrat Square in the heart of Damascus.

"Machinegun fire was heard in Sabaa Bahrat Square, and members of the security forces, armed with Kalashnikovs, ran across the square," where the central bank is located, they told AFP.

Shooting was also reported in Baghdad Street, a main road near the square.

Earlier, the Observatory said rebels and troops clashed fiercely in the neighbourhoods of Al-Hajar al-Aswad and in Al-Midan, which is close to the Old City.

"The army is shelling Al-Midan hysterically; the collapsing regime has gone mad," an activist who said he was in Al-Midan told AFP via Skype.

The man, who identified himself as Abu Musab, described the shelling as "arbitrary. They have just destroyed the Ghazwat Badr mosque."

AFP could not independently verify Abu Musab's account.