...The place where Pencilneck hangs his brass hat...
, a clear escalation in the most serious fighting in the capital since the country's conflict began last year, activists said.
The fierce festivities, which have raged over the past three days in at least four neighborhoods across the city, were the latest sign that Syria's civil war is moving ever closer to the heart of Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir
Pencilneckal-Assad
Despoiler of Deraa...
's regime. Government forces have already thrown tanks and armored personnel carriers into the battle in the capital, but the use of airpower reflected the intensity and seriousness of the fighting.
The Britannia-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and Damascus-based activist Maath al-Shami said Tuesday's festivities were concentrated in the neighborhoods of Kfar Souseh, Nahr Aisha, Midan and Qadam.
"I can hear cracks of gunfire and some kabooms from the direction of Midan," al-Shami told The News Agency that Dare Not be Named via Skype. "Black smoke is billowing from the area."
Syria's state-run news agency
...and if you can't believe the state-run news agency who can you believe?...
said troops were still chasing "terrorist elements" who had fled from Nahr Aisha to Midan. Syria refers to its opponents as terrorists.
An amateur video showed two armored personnel carriers with heavy machineguns on top along with troops who were said to be advancing in an empty road toward Midan on Tuesday.
Activists have dubbed the fighting in the capital the "Damascus Volcano" in what appears to be an attempt to bring the fighting into Syria's seat of power.
The festivities are the most sustained and widespread in the capital since the start of the uprising against Assad in March last year and a crackdown that activists say has claimed the lives of more than 17,000 people. In the past, festivities happened at night in the capital. Now, the fighting rages during the day -- a sign of the growing strength and boldness of the rebels.
That has brought the bloodshed to the heart of Damascus -- and Syria's largest city, 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...
-- which are both home to elites who have benefited from close ties to Assad's regime, as well as merchant classes and minority groups who worry their status will suffer if Assad falls.
Activists also reported festivities and shelling in the rebel held towns of Rastan and Talbiseh in the central province of Homs.
One amateur video posted online showed helicopters firing missiles in Talbiseh, while another video showed gunnies attacking what appeared to be a government position in Rastan. The caption said the rebels were carrying "intensive operations" in support of Damascus and Homs.
As the violence across the country has spiraled out of control, diplomatic efforts to halt the bloodshed have seemingly come to a dead end.
Much of the international community has condemned Assad's crackdown, but world powers remain deeply divided over who is responsible and how to stop the fighting. The U.S. and many Western nations have called on Assad to leave power, while Russia, China and Iran have stood by the regime.
UN chief
the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon... of whom it can be said to his credit that he is not Kofi Annan...
was headed to China on Tuesday as part of a diplomatic push to get Beijing and Moscow to back a tougher response to attacks by Assad's regime. Ban's trip comes ahead of a UN Security Council vote this week. A Western-backed resolution calls for sanctions and invokes Chapter 7 of the UN Charter.
A Chapter 7 resolution authorizes actions that can ultimately include the use of military force, which US administration and European officials -- for now -- are playing down as a possibility.
Ban was to hold talks with Chinese President Hu Jintao
...Hu has been involved in the Communist party bureaucracy for most of his adult life, meaning his viewpoint has a lot more theory than it does practice. He espouses a
Harmonious Societyapproach, suggesting everybody should play nice or they'll be shot...
on Wednesday, with Syria expected to top the agenda.
UN special envoy Kofi Annan
...Ghanaian diplomat who served as the seventh and so far the worst Secretary-General of the UN. Annan and the UN were the co-recipients of the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize for something or other that probably sounded good at the time. In December 2004, reports surfaced that Kofi's son Kojo received payments from the Swiss company Cotecna, which had won a lucrative contract under the UN Oil-for-Food Program. Kofi Annan called for an investigation to look into the allegations, which stirred up the expected cesspool but couldn't seem to come up with enough evidence to indict Kofi himself, or even Kojo..., meanwhile, was meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin
...Second President of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Because of constitutionally mandated term limits he is the current Prime Minister of Russia. His sock puppet, Dmitry Medvedev, was installed in the 2008 presidential elections. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law. During his eight years in office Russia's economy bounced back from crisis, seeing GDP increase, poverty decrease and average monthly salaries increase. During his presidency Putin passed into law a series of fundamental reforms, including a flat income tax of 13%, a reduced profits tax, and new land and legal codes. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile...in Moscow to discuss the conflict. Annan is seeking support for his faltering peace plan, which put some 300 UN observers in Syria to monitor the implementation of a cease-fire.
That truce never took hold, however, and the monitors have been largely confined to their hotel for weeks because of the escalating bloodshed. The mission expires on July 20.
The leader of Syria's outlawed Moslem Brüderbund, Mohamad Riyad Shukfa, criticized Annan's six-point plan and the observer mission, saying "the Syrian people have no faith in it."
"We would like this mission to leave Syria soon because it gives more chances to Assad to kill," Shukfa said from Turkey, where the Brotherhood, which was crushed in 1982 by Assad's late father and predecessor, Hafez Assad, is holding a meeting.
In Tehran, Iranian Foreign Ministry front man Ramin Mehmanparast warned against foreign intervention in Syria. Iran, one of Syria's strongest allies, offered to mediate and host a meeting between Syrian government and rebels to help resolve the conflict.
"Iran is prepared to use all its capacities to resolve the crisis in Syria," Mehmanparast told news hounds Tuesday.
The Syrian opposition is unlikely to accept Iran, which has provided Assad with military and political backing for years, as a mediator.
The Observatory and al-Shami said helicopters fired heavy machine guns during overnight festivities in the neighborhoods of Qadam and Hajar al-Aswad.
An amateur video showed a military helicopter flying over the Damascus neighborhood of Qaboun. The narrator could be heard saying "aerial bombardment" of Qaboun, although the helicopter was not seen firing in the 30-second video. The authenticity of the video could not be independently verified.
Another activist in the capital, who asked to be identified only as Bayan because of fear for her safety, said troops fired mortar rounds at the neighborhoods of Qaboun and Jobar, causing a major fire near Jobar's Grand Mosque.
"People are trying to extinguish the fire with water hoses or buckets filled with water," Bayan said via Skype. She added that government troops had set up checkpoints around Damascus and were searching cars and demanding passengers' identity cards.
Al-Shami said residents of hard-hit areas were fleeing to safer neighborhoods where they were staying at schools and mosques. He added that many of the maimed were being treated at secret hospitals for fear they might be tossed in the clink
Youse'll never take me alive coppers!... [BANG!]... Ow!... I quit!
if taken to official ones.
The Local Coordination Committees activist group reported heavy shelling of rebel-held areas in the central province of Homs where they said there were casualties.
As the violence has escalated, the number of Syrians fleeing the bloodshed has swelled to some 112,000, according to United Nations
...a formerly good idea gone bad...
. The U.N. refugee agency said women and kiddies make up three-quarters of those whom it has assisted or registered in Iraq, Jordan, Leb and Turkey.