Al Arabiya, 7 Feb 2013 – Rebel belts around Damascus were rocked by fighting and heavy shelling for a second straight day on Thursday as the army pressed a major offensive that a watchdog said killed 64 people in 24 hours.
Among those killed were five civilians, three of them women, who died when mortars slammed into the Yarmuk Palestinian refugee camp in the south of the capital, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
The watchdog and a Syrian security official had on Wednesday reported the launch by President Bashar al-Assad’s forces of a fierce offensive on rebel belts on the outskirts of Damascus, while residents reported the heaviest bombardments in months.
Elite Republican Guard units based on the imposing Qasioun Mountain in the middle of the city fired artillery rounds and rocket launchers at the eastern neighborhood of Jobar and at the southern ring road, where rebels have overrun roadblocks and army positions, the sources said.
They put the overnight death toll at 30 people, mostly from heavy army bombardment on the rebellious neighborhoods of Jobar, Zamalka and Hajar al-Aswad.
Jobar and Zamalka are situated near security compounds housing forces from Assad’s Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam that has dominated power in Syria since the 1960s.
Hajar al-Aswad is close to the southern entrance of the capital and the main highway to the city of Deraa and the Jordanian border.
“Jobar is the most contested district and the regime is bombarding it heavily,” said Captain Islam Alloush of the Liwa al-Islam rebel unit.
He said the army was massing forces to take back a major junction on the ring road.
Pro-regime daily Al-Watan reported on Thursday that “terrorists in Jobar (east) who attacked army checkpoints perished at the gates of Damascus on the perimeter of Abassid Square. They could not advance.”
The paper said the army “destroyed the proponents of the ‘epic’ battle for Damascus,” referring to a rebel offensive on the capital.
“The army is determined to crush terrorism around the capital and big cities, and over the past several days it has launched a qualitative operation and killed dozens of terrorists who dreamt of attacking and entering Damascus.”
Syrian authorities have banned most independent media from the country, making it difficult to verify events on the ground.
Alloush said the aim of the rebel offensive was not to take central Damascus, that would not be attempted while Assad’s forces controlled major bases in Muleiha district and the town of Adra, he said.
“The objective is to take out the sniper positions and fortifications that form part of the regime’s defense line on Damascus, not to advance too quickly without having the proper support,” he said.
The opposition activist in Damascus said the offensive was being led by Sunni officers who had defected from the army, and aimed to cut Assad’s command and control lines from the center of the city to its outskirts.
The rebels are using anti-aircraft guns, mortar rounds and armored vehicles captured from Assad’s forces over the past few months, according to opposition sources.
The Observatory, which gathers its reports from a large network of activists and medics in civilian and military hospitals on the ground, said that 160 people were killed nationwide on Wednesday: 75 rebels, 46 soldiers and 39 civilians.