Syrian troops respond as rebels renew attack on Damascus
BEIRUT — Airstrikes and artillery fire shook Damascus on Tuesday as government forces tried to repel a second rebel attack on the Syrian capital in three days.
The military deployed tanks along the city’s leafy Fares al-Khoury Avenue leading to the eastern Jobar and Qaboun neighbourhoods, where opposition forces have been pinned for years, and the cracks of gunfire could be heard from Abbassin Square.
Government jets pounded the areas behind rebel lines, according to footage released by opposition factions, and fighters scrambled between rubble and burning buses to take up positions. Smoke clouded the skies.
Syrian state media said 15 people were wounded in rebel shelling across the capital. State-affiliated al-Ikhbariya TV said government forces had killed and wounded several “terrorists” and arrested several more.