Syria resumes shelling on Damascus districts

 
Tanks and helicopters launch deadly strikes in southern areas of the capital as rebel fighters return.
The Syrian army has deployed tanks on a ring road surrounding Damascus and shelled southern neighbourhoods where rebels operate, the heaviest bombardment in the capital since the army reasserted control last month, residents and activists said.
At least 40 people were killed in the shelling, which was accompanied by attacks from helicopters, and in ensuing ground raids on the Kfar Souseh, Daraya, Qadam and Nahr Aisha neighbourhoods, they said.
"The whole of Damascus is shaking with the sound of shelling," a woman in Kfar Souseh said.
She said the army's artillery was also firing on the capital from the Qasioun and Saraya mountains overlooking Damascus. The assaults in the capital coincide with the departure of the United Nations observer mission, whose members are leaving after failing to secure a ceasefire.
Maaz al-Shami, a member of the Damascus Media Office, a group of young opposition activists monitoring the crackdown in Damascus, said rebels who had left the city during a fierce army campaign last month had started to return.
"They went back to their homes, or disappeared in the green belt surrounding Damascus," Shami said.
"They are back now, and the regime is responding with daily shelling and helicopter bombardment. A war atmosphere in Damascus is setting in."
The renewed attacks followed what activists said was a bloody raid on the Maadamiya neighbourhood on Tuesday.
Funeral targeted
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), a London-based anti-government group, said it had documented the names of at least 42 civilians killed in the mixed suburb, which is home to around 200,000 Christians, Alawites and Sunni Muslims.
The SOHR said government troops had targeted a funeral procession, and that dozens of unidentified bodies had been found in a basement as well.
Heavy shelling and clashes also continued on Tuesday across swathes of Aleppo, the country's largest city, as both the regime and rebels claim they are gaining ground in the key northern battleground.
At least 24 people were reported to have been killed nationwide on Tuesday, among them women and children in Aleppo, as the Syrian government pressed rebel-held areas.
The rebel Free Syrian Army (FSA) claimed that it controlled almost two-thirds of the city, which has been battered by a month of air strikes, shelling and fighting.
"We now control more than 60 per cent of the city of Aleppo, and each day we take control of new districts," Abdel Jabbar al-Okaidi, a colonel with the FSA, said.

The conflict has dealt a severe blow to Syria's economy

He went on to list about 30 districts which he claimed were under FSA control, including about half of the neighbourhood of Salaheddin.
A security source in Damascus rejected the FSA claims, according to the AFP news agency, calling them "completely false".
"The terrorists are not advancing," the Syrian source said.
"It is the army that is making slow progress. Terrorist groups occasionally come out of districts under their control and attack other districts to be able to then claim they have this or that street under their control."
Activists also reported that troops had stormed a town near Damascus, torching homes and shops, while helicopters and war planes strafed several suburbs of the capital, which the regime claimed to have largely recaptured last month.

Obama warns Syria over chemical weapons

Obama said 'a red line for us is we start seeing ... chemical weapons moving around or being utilised'

Barack Obama has warned that US forces could move against Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad if he deploys chemical weapons against rebels trying to overthrow him. The US president's comments came as a female Japanese reporter was killed while covering clashes in the northern city of Aleppo. In some of his strongest language yet on Syria, Obama told a White House news conference on Monday that Assad faced "enormous consequences" if he crossed a "red line" of even moving unconventional weapons in a threatening manner. Obama noted that he had refrained "at this point" from ordering US military engagement, but when he was asked at a whether he might deploy forces, for example to secure Syrian chemical and biological weapons, he said his view could change. "We have been very clear to the Assad regime, but also to other players on the ground, that a red line for us is we start seeing a whole bunch of chemical weapons moving around or being utilised," he said. "That would change my calculus." 'Wrong hands' Faced with a complex and explosive conflict, and with resolute support for Assad from Iran, and from Russia and China at the UN, Washington and its Western allies have shown little appetite for more than hands-off help for the rebels. The stance is in contrast to their attacks on Libya's Muammar Gaddafi last year. Last month, Syria acknowledged for the first time that it had chemical and biological weapons and said it could use them if foreign countries intervened. The threat drew strong warnings from Washington and its allies, although it is not clear how the Syrian armed forces might use such weapons in urban warfare. "We cannot have a situation where chemical or biological weapons are falling into the hands of the wrong people," Obama told the impromptu news conference on Monday. He acknowledged he was not "absolutely confident" the stockpile was secure.