The Syrian al Qaida branch and allied fighters from ultraconservative rebel factions have seized a village of President Bashar Assad's minority Alawite sect in central Syria.

Six days of fighting in a Damascus suburb has killed more than a hundred people and possibly many more, activists said today, in what the government also acknowledged may be a dramatic spike in the rising death toll in Syria.

Syrian warplanes and artillery have hit targets near Damascus International Airport, following a bloody day of attacks in the Syrian capital that killed dozens and struck deep into President Bashar Assad’s seat of power.

Heavy fighting for control of the international airport in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo and a major military air base nearby has killed some 150 rebels and government soldiers over the past two days, activists say.

Syrian rebels and regime forces fought their most intense clashes in weeks inside the heavily guarded capital, Damascus, today, activists said.

Syrian warplanes bombed rebel areas near Damascus today as President Bashar Assad’s troops battled opposition fighters for control of the road linking the capital to the country’s largest airport.

Syrian troops fought intense battles today against rebels who are trying to capture two military bases in the northwest and step up their attacks on army compounds elsewhere in the nation, activists said.

Syrian fighter jets have bombed Damascus suburbs as part of a government offensive to dislodge rebels from strategic areas around the capital.

The Syrian military has bombarded the outskirts of Damascus and other areas around the country, according to activists.

Syrian troops and rebels fought intense battles today around a strategic air base in the country’s north and a suburb of the capital that government forces have been trying to capture since last month, reports say.

Heavy clashes and shelling have been reported in suburbs of the Syrian capital Damascus and other parts of the country.

In Syria, a person is ‘disappeared’ when they’re arrested, detained or abducted. Only the lucky ones return to their families, writes Noeleen Hartigan

Syrian army shelling and helicopter attacks on suburbs of the capital Damascus killed at least 62 people yesterday, opposition activists said.

A Syrian military helicopter has crashed in a ball of fire after apparently being hit during fighting between government forces and rebels in the Damascus.

The White House says reports of a massacre near Damascus are the latest evidence of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's "wanton disregard for human life."

Syrian state television says a helicopter has been downed in Damascus.

Evidence mounted of a new massacre in Syria’s deepening civil war, with activists reporting a killing spree by government forces after they seized the suburb of Daraya from rebel control three days ago.

Syrian opposition activists accused President Bashar al-Assad’s army yesterday of massacring hundreds of people in a town close to the capital that government forces recaptured from rebels.

The bodies of more than 30 civilians, some of them women and children, were today found in the streets of the Syrian town of Daraya south-west of Damascus, activists said.

Fighting has continued to rage on between government forces and rebels close the Syrian capital today.

Troops and tanks swept into a restive town near Damascus yesterday in an assault aimed at crushing opposition to President Bashar al-Assad, whose struggle for survival has dragged Syria into an increasingly bloody war.

Government forces pummelled the battered city of Aleppo with airstrikes and tanks and shelled parts of Damascus and southern Syria yesterday, killing at least 100 people during a major Muslim holiday, rights groups and activists said.

Syrian troops have begun pulling out from some cities and heading back to their bases a week ahead of a deadline to implement an international ceasefire plan, a government official said.

Syrian forces unleashed a barrage of artillery on the battered city of Homs for hours before dawn today, killing more than 200 people in what appeared to be the bloodiest episode in the 11-month-old uprising, activists said.

The Syrian Security forces crackdown on protesters in different parts of the country left at least 44 people dead yesterday, making it one of the deadliest days since an uprising against President Bashar Assad’s regime began two months ago, a rights group said today.

Thousands of Syrians defied an unrelenting government crackdown and flooded the streets across the country to buttress their two-month uprising against the country’s authoritarian regime.

Syrian security forces opened fire on protesters around the country today, activists said.

At least nine people have been killed when Syrian security forces opened fire on protests around the country, activists said.