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Army Shells Damascus Suburbs
[An Nahar] The army shelled the southwestern outskirts of Damascus
...The place where Pencilneck hangs his brass hat...
on Saturday as it mounted an offensive against rebel fighters holed up in the area, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

"The army shelled orchards that extend from Kfar Sousa to Daraya and are taking on rebels who control the region," said the Britannia-based watchdog, which relies on a network of activists and medics on the ground.

The Syrian Revolution General Commission, a grassroots network of opposition activists, reported that government forces also shelled Douma, a town on the opposite side of Damascus.

Douma is located northeast of the capital, in the embattled Eastern Ghouta region where the regime has launched a major operation to secure the airport highway.

Analysts say Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
Lord of the Baath...
's regime has been trying to secure an eight-kilometer (five-mile) radius around Damascus at all costs in a bid to be in a position to negotiate a solution to the conflict.

The Observatory also reported shelling and fighting in Aleppo
...For centuries, Aleppo was Greater Syria's largest city and the Ottoman Empire's third, after Constantinople and Cairo. Although relatively close to Damascus in distance, Aleppans regard Damascenes as country cousins...
, Syria's second city in the north, which has been scene to urban warfare for more than four months.

Also, festivities were reported in the central city of Homs, dubbed by activists "the capital of the revolution".

Violence nationwide killed at least 122 people on Friday, including 73 civilians and 22 fighters from neighboring Leb, according to the Observatory.

It says that overall, more than 41,000 people have died since the eruption of the uprising in March 2011.

Posted by: Fred 2012-12-02
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=357215