Syria: Key cities battles heat up

Damascus and Aleppo, came under shell fire on Thursday as troops loyal to President Bashar Assad stepped up efforts to crush rebels threatening the government's two main power centres.  A new rebel group boasting some 1,000 fighters launched an operation Sunday to capture Aleppo, while government troops using helicopter gunships and heavy artillery rolled back opposition gains in the capital Damascus.


 One of the most senior figures to defect from Assad's inner circle, Brigadier General Manaf Tlas, put himself forward as someone who could help unite the fragmented opposition inside and outside Syria on a blueprint for a transfer of power. 


Regime and rebel forces battled in several Damascus neighborhoods, and the Palestinian refugee camp of Yarmouk endured "fierce helicopter shelling with machine guns," the Local Coordination Committees of Syria said. The death toll for Thursday has climbed to 112 across Syria: 29 in Damascus and its suburbs; 27 in Daraa, including 22 in the Al-A'ajamy Valley; 20 in Aleppo; 16 in Idlib; 10 in Homs; four in Hama; five in Deir Ezzor; and one in Qunaitra, the LCC said. Some of those killed in the Al-A'ajamy Valley were defected soldiers seeking "to save civilians fleeing from shelling," the group said. On Wednesday, at least 129 were killed, including 22 in Aleppo and 27 in and around Damascus, the LCC said.


UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, addressing the Bosnian parliament in Sarajevo, said the world must unite to end the "slaughter" in Syria, recalling the inertia of the United Nations in 1995 during the Srebrenica massacre in Bosnia. At the UN Security Council, members blamed each other for rising violence in Syria. Western states pledged to seek an end to the conflict outside the world body, while Russia warned of "likely catastrophic consequences" with that approach.


Russia, an ally of Syria, and China have repeatedly blocked Western-backed Security Council resolutions on Syria.