Syrian Forces Pound Rebel-Held Areas of Damascus...

By BASSEM MROUE Associated Press

BEIRUT April 1, 2013 (AP)

Syrian government warplanes and artillery pounded Damascus and its suburbs Tuesday, as rebels in the northern city of Aleppo launched an operation that aims to free hundreds of political detainees from the city's central prison, activists said.

The fighting has escalated across Syria in recent weeks, particularly in Aleppo and Damascus, the country's largest cities, as the rebels and President Bashar Assad's regime try to gain the upper hand in the 2-year-old conflict. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said some 6,000 people were killed nationwide in March alone, making it the deadliest month since the anti-Assad uprising began.

Damascus, which the regime managed to long keep insulated from the worst of the violence, has become a key battleground in the civil war. From their strongholds in the suburbs, rebel fighters are trying to slowly push their way into the heart of the capital, where Assad has deployed his most loyal and best equipped troops.

The Observatory said government forces on Tuesday shelled the northern Damascus neighborhoods of Jobar, Barzeh and Qaboun. It also reported an air raid on the suburb of Mleiha.

Maath al-Shami, an activist based in the suburb of eastern Ghouta, said there were several airstrikes in the area, which includes Mleiha. "Fighting is taking place on all fronts," he said, referring to clashes east of Damascus.

"Drones fly over eastern Ghouta then warplanes come and bomb the area," al-Shami said, using his activist name because he feared government retribution.

State-run TV said rebels fired a mortar shell on the Damascus suburb of Muqailabiyeh, killing four people, including two children. It added that troops killed scores of gunmen throughout the country.

The Observatory also reported heavy shelling of rebel-held areas in the central city of Homs and fighting in other regions such as Daraa in the south and Deir el-Zour to the east near the border with Iraq.

In Aleppo, rebels launched an attack dubbed "Freeing the Prisoners" that aims to eventually free detainees held in the city's central prison, the Aleppo Media Center activist group reported.

Aleppo-based activist Mohammed Saeed said the operation is a three-pronged attack targeting at the Kindi Hospital, Ghondol roundabout and the central prison. He said the hospital has been turned into a military compound recently.

"The aim of the offensive is to strengthen the siege on the central prison and demand the release of political prisoners," Saeed said via Skype, adding that the goal is to free hundreds of political prisoners inside.

He added that if the rebels manage to take the three areas, they will effectively cut supply lines for government troops stationed in the city.

Aleppo, Syria's largest city and a former commercial hub, has been a key battleground in the country's civil war since rebels launched an offensive there in July, seizing several districts before the fighting largely settled into a bloody stalemate that has left the city carved up into government- and rebel-held zones.

In an attempt to combat rising crime and kidnapping for ransom as a result of the civil war, Assad issued a decree Tuesday in which any person who abducts someone for political or sectarian reasons or for ransom will be sentenced to life in prison with hard labor, the state news agency said.

It added that if the kidnapper kills, rapes or permanently disables the captive then the abductor will receive the death sentence.

( abc news )