The main Western-backed Syrian opposition group has said it intends to join peace talks with the Syrian government if conditions are met.

The US, Britain and France have said they believe that the Assad regime was responsible for a chemical weapons attack in Damascus last month.

Snipers have fired on the UN convoy carrying a team investigating the use of chemical weapons in Syria, but failed to deter them from their mission today.

The UN weapons team investigating the Syrian regime’s use of chemical weapons has been attacked by sniper fire as it set out in convoy for the area where hundreds of civilians died.

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.

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.

Government forces stormed a rebel-held town outside Damascus yesterday after days of fighting, killing at least 23 fighters, according to an activist group and a rebel spokesman.

A Syrian government official warned the United States today that military intervention in Syria could lead to regional turmoil as regime forces bombed a northern village and stormed a rebel-held Damascus suburb, killing dozens of people.

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.