Syrian forces and rebel fighters clash in Damascus

Battle believed to involve the largest deployment of Syrian military in the capital since the uprising against the president, Bashar Al Assad, began 16 months ago.

A Syrian woman mourns her dead relatives in the Syrian village of Treimsa, in the central province of Hama, where rights activists say more than 150 people were massacred.

BEIRUT // Syrian forces and rebel fighters clashed near central Damascus yesterday as the conflict closed in on the Syrian capital for a second consecutive day.

The clashes briefly shut the motorway linking the capital with Damascus International Airport to the south - an unprecedented development, said Mustafa Osso, an opposition activist.

The rebel Free Syrian Army appears to have "a new strategy to bring the fighting into the centre of the capital", Mr Osso said. "The capital used to be safe. This will trouble the regime."

Syrian troops backed by armoured vehicles moved into the Midan area of Damascus yesterday, close to the Syrian government's centre of power, in an effort to force opposition fighters out.

There have been sporadic clashes in Damascus in recent months but this was believed to be the largest deployment of Syrian military in the capital since the uprising against the president, Bashar Al Assad, began 16 months ago.

"You will never get Damascus," Al Watan newspaper, which is close to the regime, said yesterday. "Security forces, backed by the army, have for the past 48 hours been attacking the terrorist groups as they try to pull back to districts on the outskirts."

Opposition activists said the fighting was concentrated in the areas of Kfar Souseh, Midan and Tadamon.

Demonstrations took place in other parts of Damascus yesterday to protest against the military operation in Midan, where opposition activists reported government snipers on the rooftops.

Further violence and clashes were also reported in locations outside the capital, including in Homs and the central province of Hama.

Sana, the Syrian state news agency, said security forces clashed with "armed terrorist groups" - the term the government uses to describe rebel fighters - in outlying parts of Damascus yesterday, as well as in Deir Ezzor and Idlib, where the agency said "scores of terrorists" were killed.

The Local Coordination Committees (LCC), a leading opposition group, reported that at least 31 people were killed across Syria yesterday, including three defected soldiers and four children. The diplomatic fallout from the continuing crisis in Syria continued yesterday, as Morocco ordered the Syrian ambassador to leave the country. Damascus responded swiftly by naming the Moroccan ambassador to Syria as persona non grata.

The Moroccan foreign ministry did not specify what prompted the move, but said that the situation in Syria "cannot remain as it is" and called for a political transition towards a democratic system of government.

The move comes after countries including the UAE and other Gulf states, France and the US expelled Syrian envoys.

Russia, which has remained an ally of the Assad regime, yesterday accused western states of using "elements of blackmail" in an effort to secure a tougher United Nations Security Council resolution on Syria.

A new western-backed draft resolution leaves open the possibility for military enforcement under Chapter Seven of the UN Charter, which can authorise foreign powers to take measures including the use of military force.

Russia remains deeply opposed to foreign military intervention in Syria.

"To our great regret, there are elements of blackmail," the Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, said.

"We are being told that if you do not agree to passing the resolution under Chapter Seven of the UN Charter, then we shall refuse to extend the mandate of the monitoring mission."

The mandate for the observer mission to Syria ends on Friday.

Russia has continued to maintain political negotiations are the only way to overcome the crisis in Syria and a precondition for talks should not be Mr Al Assad's removal from power - something that opposition groups have called for.

"He won't leave, not because we are defending him, but simply because a very significant part of the population in Syria stands behind him," said Mr Lavrov, who was to meet UN-Arab League special envoy to Syria Kofi Annan in Moscow yesterday.

Talks between Mr Annan and the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, are scheduled for today.

A senior UN official yesterday accused the Syrian government of blocking visas for some international aid workers. John Ging, director of operations for the UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, also said the government was guilty of "tremendous political obstruction" that was preventing aid reaching an estimated 850,000 people in need in Syria.

Anti-regime activists estimate that more than 17,000 people have been killed in Syria since the uprising began.

Also yesterday, the Pentagon announced it was sending an aircraft carrier to the Middle East several months early to make sure at least two carriers will constantly be present in the region.

* With additional reporting by Reuters, the Associated Press and Agence France-Presse