Clashes between rebels and Syrian army continue

Amateur video uploaded to the internet and said to have been shot on Monday shows what is said to be a Syrian plane dropping a bomb in the northern city of Aleppo.

Smoke then rises from a building.

Other video posted to a social media website shows a child being taken away from rubble after an attack purportedly carried out in Aleppo, also on Monday.

More internet images purport to show rebels firing towards Syrian army positions in the streets of Ethaa, in the Aleppo area on Sunday.

Syrian authorities restrict independent media access, making it hard to verify accounts of the conflict from both sides.

Syria’s Information Minister Omran Zoabi said Monday the situation in the country was under control but warned peace initiatives would fail if armed opposition groups received international funding.

“Nobody should worry. Our situation in Syria is very good on the level of leadership, government, institutions and army. Everything is under control and nothing will be different. Their kind of  terrorist acts ensures what I am talking about,” Zoabi told journalist in Damascus.

In northern Syria, 18 bodies were found in the rubble of a house bombed by a Syrian warplane in the rebel-held town of al-Bab and 13 more are missing, an opposition watchdog group said.       
       
Activists also reported the razing or burning of at least 200 houses and shops in the old part of the southern city of Deraa in the last few days. Army shelling had largely emptied the area, prompting 40,000 people to flee to Jordan.

The army, which appears to have regained control of Damascus proper after an insurgent offensive that began in July, shelled outlying southern and eastern districts overnight to try to drive out rebels still operating there, opposition groups said.

Another video is said to show a Syrian command centre coming under attack from rebel fighters in Deir al Zor on Sunday.

Another social media websites carried video said to be shot in Hallan al-Awameed, in the Duma suburb of Damascus on Sunday showing rebels celebrating after they are said to have captured two missile carrying vehicles.

Reuters is unable to independently verify the content of the videos uploaded to a social media website.

Syrian rebels said they planted bombs inside the Syrian army’s General Staff headquarters in central Damascus on Sunday as President Bashar al-Assad’s forces bulldozed buildings to the ground in parts of the capital that have backed the uprising. Activists called the bulldozing a collective punishment of Sunni Muslim areas hostile to al-Assad.

Syrian state television said four people were wounded in what it called a terrorist attack on the General Staff compound in the highly guarded Abu Rummaneh district, where another bomb attack killed four of Assad’s top lieutenants two months ago.

The violence in Damascus continued on Monday, when a car bomb exploded in a religiously mixed district on the edge of Damascus, causing casualties including women and children, state media and opposition campaigners said.

Zoabi said all Syrians who fled into neighbouring countries to escape the violence were free to return whenever they wanted.

“Those who think they may get arrested or anything else. I ensure you that there is nothing that prevents any Syrian to return to Syria. Not the fear of anything,” he said.

More than 20,000 people have been killed in Syria since initially peaceful protests against Assad erupted in March 2011.