...Capital of the last remaining Baathist regime in the world...
on Tuesday, a watchdog said, as a pro-regime daily reported festivities in a camp housing Paleostinian refugees.
Fighte jets launched strikes on the town of Douma, northeast of Damascus, and overflew parts of Eastern Ghuta region, home to some of the rebel Free Syrian Army's fiercest and best-organised groups, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
The army, as part of its campaign to suppress the insurgency near Damascus once and for all, used tanks to pound the towns of Daraya and Moadamiyat al-Sham, southwest of the capital, and Yalda and Beit Sahem, just to the city's south.
Meanwhile,
...back at the desert island, Irene was indignant at the thought of doing such a thing without benefit of clergy...
a pro-regime newspaper made a rare, open admission of the air force's use of strikes in Damascus province.
"The Syrian army has continued to chase gunnies from their lairs, in battles using all kinds of weapons, including artillery and air power," said Al-Watan.
| Pretty soon they'll be battling the rebels from their lairs a block away from the Presidential Palace... |
"The situation in the Yarmuk camp, where gunnies have flocked, is still tense, and festivities between Paleostinian (pro-regime) popular committees and gangs have continued," Al-Watan reported, citing fleeing residents.
There was "an acute bread shortage, as bakeries have come to a standstill" in the camp.
Yarmuk witnessed fierce festivities in December when warplanes staged two air strikes on the densely populated camp, leading thousands of people to flee.
Despite bids to demilitarise the area, festivities pitting rebels fighting the regime of
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneckal-Assad
Light of the Alawites...
against the army and pro-regime Paleostinian militia have been reported.
Elsewhere, at least 56 fighters were killed in six days of fighting in the majority Kurdish city of Ras al-Ain, on the Turkish border, said the Observatory which uses a network of doctors, medics and lawyers on the ground for its reporting.
Tuesday's violence came a day after at least 178 people were killed in violence across Syria, including 31 pro-regime hard boyz who died in a suicide kaboom in the town of Salamiyeh, in the central province of Hama, the Britannia-based watchdog said.