Syrian President Bashar Assad's troops battled rebels in the outskirts of Damascus on Wednesday, April 10 and pressed on with a counteroffensive against opposition fighters in the south to prevent their advance on the capital, The Associated Press reports.
With the recent influx of better weapons and other foreign aid, the rebels have made major gains in the south, seizing military bases and towns in the strategically important region between Damascus and the border with Jordan, about 160 kilometers (100 miles) from the capital.
The opposition fighters hope to eventually storm Damascus from the south in their campaign to topple Assad.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Wednesday's clashes have been focused on opposition strongholds around the capital, including the suburbs of Daraya and Harasta. Fighting also raged in and around the northern city of Aleppo, Syria's largest city and its main commercial hub, they said.
The activists said both sides sustained losses in Wednesday's fighting on the two battlefields. Damascus suburbs and Aleppo have been the scene of major urban warfare in Syria's 2-year-old uprising against Assad's rule. The revolt started as peaceful protests inspired by other Arab Spring uprisings but later descended into civil war.
At least 28 rebels and 13 soldiers were killed in the fighting around Damascus, while 15 opposition fighters and 28 government troops died in the fighting in Aleppo on Wednesday, the Observatory said.
