Troops and gunmen clash in Damascus

Syrian security forces clashed with gunmen today in an upmarket area of the capital Damascus that is home to embassies and senior officials.

The confrontation was one of the worst in the tightly-controlled city centre in the country’s year-long uprising.

A resident of the western Mazzeh district said automatic rifles and machine guns were used in the two-hour clash which ended at about 4am local time.

“We also heard three strong explosions,” said the man.

He added that the clash was close to the Swiss embassy and the home of Major General Assef Shawkat, the deputy chief of staff for security affairs who is married to President Bashar Assad’s sister, Bushra.

Armed rebels are active in Damascus’s suburbs and satellite towns but rarely venture into the heart of the capital where Mr Assad’s troops are deployed in force.

Damascus has been largely free of the daily shootings and deaths reported across the country since the uprising against the president began in March last year. But the capital has witnessed several major bomb attacks targeting security facilities, most recently on Saturday.

The government blames “terrorists” for the bombings but the opposition says the regime itself may be carrying them out to discredit the uprising.

An activist in the capital said this morning’s clashes occurred near the Political Security Directorate building. He said they were followed by raids by security forces who were searching for the attackers.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which has a network of activists throughout Syria, said 18 of Mr Assad’s troops were injured in the clashes. It described the incident “as the most violent of its kind and closest to security centres in Damascus since the revolution began”.

On Saturday, three suicide bombings in Damascus killed 27 people. Two of them also targeted government security buildings.

Yesterday, an explosion killed two and wounded 30 in the northern city of Aleppo, Syria’s largest.