Syrian army tanks shelled Aleppo yesterday and a helicopter gunship strafed rebel positions with heavy machine-gun fire as they fought for control of the country’s biggest city.

Mortars rained down on a crowded marketplace in a Palestinian refugee camp in the Syrian capital, killing 21 people as regime forces and rebels clashed on the southern outskirts of Damascus, activists have said.

Syrian rebels have bombarded a military air base in Aleppo using a tank captured from government troops as activists reported the regime has launched new raids against opposition fighters near the capital Damascus, killing dozens.

Humanitarian conditions have grown even more dire in the besieged Syrian city of Aleppo with activists reporting dwindling stocks of food and cooking gas and only intermittent electricity supplies as droves of local residents flee almost two weeks of intense clashes between rebels and regime forces.

It is estimated 200,000 civilians have fled fighting in Syria's biggest city of Aleppo.

The government of Bashar al-Assad has declared victory in a hard-fought battle for Syria’s capital Damascus, and pounded rebels who control parts of the country’s largest city Aleppo.

Syrian troops fired tank shells and artillery today at neighbourhoods in Aleppo as rebels tried to repel a government ground assault against their positions in Syria's largest city, activists said.

Fierce clashes persisted overnight in Syria’s commercial capital of Aleppo, stretching into a fourth day, Syrian authorities and opposition activists said.

Syrian troops clashed with rebels in the city of Aleppo for a second day today, forcing inhabitants to flee to safer areas in some of the fiercest fighting to date in the heart of the country’s northern commercial hub, activists said.