SYRIAN rebels and troops have clashed in several districts of Damascus while air raids hit the city's outskirts, a watchdog says, amid intensifying fighting in the capital.
Meanwhile, the humanitarian situation in Syria is now so bad that the Red Cross is struggling to cope, the head of the international aid agency said on Thursday.
The violence in Damascus came a day after 133 people were killed on Wednesday across Syria, including 59 civilians, rebels and soldiers in Damascus province alone, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
Fresh fighting erupted overnight in Damascus in the southern neighbourhood of Qadam and Mazzeh in the west, where three civilians were killed on Wednesday in a shelling attack on Mazzeh 86, a district mainly populated by members of the Alawite minority, an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam.
Sectarian tensions have mounted over the course of the 20-month uprising, with civilians in the majority Sunni country bearing the brunt of the death toll.
On Thursday, warplanes pounded the town of Saqba just outside the capital, while helicopters could be seen circling over the East Ghuta area, some 50 kilometres northeast of Damascus, the Britain-based watchdog said.
At dawn, plumes of smoke rose over the southern Damascus districts of Nahr Aisha and Midan after mortar rounds fell on the area, reported the Observatory, which gathers its information from a network of activists, lawyers and medics on the ground.
In the commercial hub Aleppo, troops bombarded the eastern districts of the city, while one rebel was killed as clashes broke out around the air force intelligence branch in Zahraa district in the northwest.
Residents told AFP that warplanes and tanks shelled Zahraa and Liramun at the northwest entrance of the city overnight.
An AFP correspondent reported the sound of machinegun fire and explosions as rebels and troops battled in the Old City.
The Observatory says more than 37,000 people have died since the March 2011 outbreak of the Syrian revolt, which began as a peaceful protest movement inspired by the Arab Spring but evolved into an armed rebellion following repression.
In Geneva, Peter Maurer, president of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), told reporters: "The humanitarian situation is getting worse despite the scope of the operation increasing. We can't cope with the worsening of the situation."
The ICRC, which works in collaboration with the Syrian Arab Red Crescent to deliver aid in the conflict-racked country, nonetheless has "a lot of blank spots" with regard to the needs of the people on the ground, he said.
"There is an unknown number of people in Syria who do not get the aid they need."
Meanwhile, an Armenian plane carrying humanitarian aid for Syria was forced to land in Turkey on Thursday for an inspection of its cargo, the Anatolia news agency reported.
The cargo plane landed at Erzurum airport in eastern Turkey where teams of police and troops with sniffer dogs began a search, it said.
It was the second time in a month that the Turkish authorities have ordered an Armenian plane heading for Syria to land for security checks.
On October 15, another Armenian plane carrying humanitarian aid to Syria's battered second city of Aleppo was forced to land at Erzurum airport but the plane was allowed to resume journey after officials said no suspect cargo turned up during searches.
Last month, Turkish jets forced a Syrian plane flying from Russia to land at Ankara airport because of what it called suspect cargo.
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