Fighting Rages in Damascus and Aleppo

A plume of black smoke rose over the Mazzeh neighborhood of Damascus on Monday as activists reported clashes during the night across the capital as well as in Syria's second city of Aleppo.

Residents of Damascus reported hearing gunfire and explosions into the early hours of the morning in the upscale Mazzeh neighborhood of west Damascus, while activists reported overnight shelling in several other districts of the city.

Syrian state television reported an assault on Mazzeh, calling the operation "targeted and quick."

The broadcaster showed footage of troops firing as they entered part of the neighborhood and featured an interview with one soldier.

"We came to the Mazzeh area at the request of citizens to fight the terrorists, who have been eliminated," he said.

The television showed Egyptian and Jordanian ID cards it claimed were taken from the "terrorists" during the operation.

Regime forces "chased the remnants of the terrorists in Barzeh," in the north east of Damascus, the report said.

The operation caused "heavy losses among them, including deaths and injuries. A number of the terrorists were arrested and dozens of them surrendered," the broadcaster said.

The Local Coordination Committees, which organizes activists on the ground in Syria, meanwhile reported that military reinforcements were sent during the night to a number of Damascus neighborhoods where regime forces and armed rebels have been locked in combat for the past week.

It said that in the Midan neighborhood, in the south of the city, troops accompanied by 15 military transport vehicles had taken up positions at the Zein al-Abdin mosque.

Two neighborhoods abutting Midan had been encircled by regime forces, it added.

The head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Rami Abdel Rahman, told Agence France Presse that fighting was continuing in Damascus and that regime forces "control the main streets in the neighborhoods they have entered."

The clashes were now concentrated "in the alleys," he added.

In neighborhoods where the fighting was heaviest, numerous bodies had yet to be recovered, Abdel Rahman said.

Elsewhere in the country, the LCC reported fierce clashes during the night and into the morning between rebel forces and Syrian troops in the city of Aleppo.

It said heavy fighting was ongoing in the Sakhour and Hanano neighborhoods of the northern city.

Largely excluded from the violence and protests of the country's 16-month uprising until recently, Aleppo has emerged as a new front in the battle between rebel fighters and the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad.

The Observatory said on Monday that the death toll in fighting across Syria on Sunday stood at 123, including 67 civilians, 22 rebels and 34 soldiers.