Syrian forces struck back against rebels today with attack helicopters and shelling in Damascus, one day after an audacious rebel attack in the capital killed three leaders of the regime.

Syria’s defence minister was killed today in a suicide blast in Damascus, state-run TV said.

A suicide attack targeted a security building in Syrian capital Damascus today, according to state-run TV.

Syrian government forces have used helicopter gunships to battle rebels in the capital Damascus, activists said.

Syria’s foreign ministry has denied government troops were behind an attack on a string of villages that left more than 90 people dead.

Syria’s opposition has demanded an independent investigation into the bombing which killed 25 people at a busy Damascus junction, blaming forces loyal to the regime for the atrocity – the second major attack in the capital in as many weeks.

A suicide bomb attack has ripped through a police bus in the centre of Damascus, killing at least 10 people and possibly 25, reports say.

Dozens of people have been killed and wounded in a suicide bomb attack in Damascus, Syrian state TV said today.

Syrian forces have killed at least six people who took part in anti-regime protests after Ramadan prayers, activists said today.

Hundreds of thousands of protesters flooded cities around Syria today – in what activists described as the largest outpouring against the regime of President Bashar Assad – and at least 14 people were killed in clashes, activists said.