Rebels have started to evacuate three towns in the eastern Qalamoun region in the Damascus countryside, according to Syrian state media.

Syrian government forces have killed more than 60 rebels in an ambush near Damascus, a blow to opposition fighters confronting a regime offensive in the capital.

Syrian rebels have taken control of at least part of a strategic neighbourhood in the northern city of Aleppo after days of heavy fighting, activists said today.

Syrian activists have claimed rebels shot down a government warplane over the northern province of Idlib on Thursday, the second time in a week that opposition fighters claimed to have brought down an aircraft in the escalating civil war.