Rebels also battled government troops in the southern neighborhood of Yarmouk, as well as in the rebel-held suburbs of Daraya and Moadamiyeh, where six people died in a government shell attack, it said. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported clashes in Jobar and shelling and airstrikes on the nearby areas of Zamalka and Qaboun.

He said rebels were within a mile of Abbasid Square in central Damascus and were firing mortars at a military base near the landmark plaza. Abu al-Fida said one checkpoint changed hands twice on Thursday but was securely in rebel hands Friday.

Since then the fighting has been locked in a deadly stalemate, with the war-ravaged city carved up into government- and opposition-held strongholds.įriday’s fighting revolved around the capital’s main highway heading toward the country’s north. “I imagine Aleppo would be a small example of what is likely to happen in Damascus.”Īleppo, Syria’s largest urban center and main commercial hub, has been convulsed by violence since the summer, when rebels launched an offensive to take control of the city. “Any attempt by the rebels to advance into central Damascus would mean the beginning of a very long fight,” said Syrian activist Rami Jarrah. The clashes raised fears that Damascus, a major cultural center and one of the world’s oldest continuously inhabited cities, could fall victim to a protracted battle that would bring the destruction seen in other major cities and trigger a mass refugee exodus into neighboring countries. Syrian rebels brought their fight within a mile of the heart of Damascus on Friday, seizing army checkpoints and cutting a key highway with a row of burning tires as they pressed their campaign for the heavily guarded capital, considered the likely endgame in the nearly 2-year-old civil war.

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