Fierce clashes, shelling and a bomb attack rocked Damascus on Wednesday, a watchdog said, as violence moved increasingly from the suburbs into districts of the Syrian capital.

A car bomb exploded overnight in the southern Qadam neighborhood, causing at least one death, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based watchdog that relies on a network of activists and medics on the ground.

The Syrian rebel commander in central Homs province, Colonel Kassem Saadeddine, said in a video posted Wednesday that he had escaped an assassination attempt by forces loyal to President Bashar Assad.

"Thanks be to God, we have returned after having escaped from the hands of Assad's bands," Saadeddine, also the spokesman for the Joint Command of the Free Syrian Army (FSA), said in the video posted overnight.

Britain is to begin talks with armed opposition groups in Syria as it seeks to help end the violence, Prime Minister David Cameron's office said Wednesday.

The government has authorized officials to have contacts with military representatives of the groups, Downing Street said, although government sources stressed the initiative was about political dialogue, not providing weapons.

The March 14 opposition alliance is hinging on a French-Saudi initiative that would steer Lebanon clear of the Syrian war and lead to a change in the Lebanese government, al-Mustaqbal movement sources said Wednesday.

Such an initiative would keep Lebanon away of the “Syrian swamp” and could expand to include the United States and Russia, the sources told As Safir daily.

The United Nations on Tuesday condemned fighting by Syrian forces close to a Golan Heights ceasefire line with Israel as a new threat to stability in the region.

Israel demanded action by the U.N. Security Council after one of its patrols in the buffer zone was hit Monday by bullets fired by Syrian forces who are battling rebels in the area.

British Prime Minister David Cameron said he would support granting Syrian President Bashar Assad a safe passage out, if requested, to end the nation's bloodshed, in a television interview Tuesday.

Asked what he would say if Assad asked for a safe exit, Cameron told Saudi-owned Al-Arabiya TV: "Done. Anything, anything to get that man out of the country and to have a safe transition in Syria."

Syrian rebels under increasing attack from regime warplanes have obtained 50 Stinger shoulder-launched missiles, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in Amman Tuesday after talks with a top dissident.

Lavrov also stressed after his meeting in the Jordanian capital with Syria's defected former prime minister Riad Hijab that he planned to work with opposition groups to help end the conflict that has ravaged Syria for more than 19 months.

At least 131 people were killed as bombings, clashes and air strikes shook Syria on Tuesday, a rights watchdog said.

In the capital Damascus, gunmen shot and killed the brother of Syria's parliament speaker as he drove to work, the state-run news agency reported.

The opposition Syrian National Council, meeting in Qatar to broaden its membership, said Tuesday that the "cornerstone" umbrella group should preserve its leading role in any revamp.

SNC chief Abdel Basset Sayda also denounced the failure of the international community to act to end "massacres" being committed by forces loyal to the regime of President Bashar Assad.

Two car bombs shook the Damascus region on Tuesday, a watchdog said, a day after nearly 250 people died in fighting and bombings in Syria's worst violence since last month's failed ceasefire bid.

One car bomb exploded before dawn in the city of Mudamiya near the capital, causing injuries and significant damage, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.