The Syrian regime has transformed a military airport in Hama city into one of the country's most-feared prisons, where detainees are crammed into hangars and deadly torture is rife, activists, watchdogs and former inmates say.

Known as the site of a 1982 uprising which was crushed amid tens of thousands of deaths by President Bashar Assad's father and predecessor Hafez, Hama has also suffered in Syria's current uprising.

More than 36,000 people have been killed since the outbreak of Syria's anti-regime revolt in March 2011, with an average of 165 people killed a day since August 1, a watchdog said Wednesday.

Civilians, at 25,667, represented the vast majority of those killed, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which includes non-military people who have taken up arms against President Bashar Assad's regime in the category.

Warplanes pummeled rebel positions across the eastern suburbs of Damascus on Wednesday, after a day of clashes and air strikes killed at least 182 people in Syria, a watchdog said.

"Warplanes carried out five air raids on the farmlands around the towns of Saqba and Douma and smoke was seen rising from the targeted areas" east of Damascus, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

U.N.-Arab League peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi said Wednesday he hoped China would play an active role in helping end the violence in Syria as he met Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi for talks in Beijing.

Greeting Yang at the foreign ministry in front of reporters, Brahimi said he hoped "China can play an active role in solving the events in Syria" without elaborating further.

Jordan police on Tuesday were detaining 61 Syrians who were traveling in three trucks near the southern town of Maan, an Islamist stronghold, a statement said.

"A police patrol in Maan governorate seized today three trucks carrying 61 Syrians, who are now in detention. The drivers were arrested too," a Public Security Directorate statement said.

A Syrian fighter jet hit targets inside Damascus for the first time on Tuesday, a watchdog said, as air strikes pounded rebel bastions around the country and an air force general was shot dead.

The warplane dropped four bombs on the east Damascus neighborhood of Jobar, near the opposition-held suburb of Zamalka, where rebel fighters were locked in fierce clashes with the army, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Turkey is ruling out any dialogue with the Syrian regime, Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said on Tuesday, a day after Moscow called for negotiations with Damascus as the only way to end the escalating conflict.

"There is no point in engaging in dialogue with a regime that continues to carry out such a massacre against its own people, even during (the Muslim festival of) Eid al-Adha," Davutoglu said at a news conference.

Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem al-Thani has accused the Syrian regime, with the complicity of the international community, of waging a "war of extermination" against its people.

Sheikh Hamad in an interview with Al-Jazeera satellite channel late on Monday took issue with U.N.-Arab League peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi, who earlier in the day had characterized the deadly conflict ravaging Syria as a "civil war."

Fierce clashes broke out before dawn Tuesday in a major Palestinian refugee camp south of Syria's capital, pitting rebels against troops backed by pro-regime Palestinian fighters, activists and a watchdog said.

The fresh violence came after the feast of Eid al-Adha came to a close on Monday, with 560 people, including 235 civilians, reported killed during a failed ceasefire attempt over the four-day Muslim holiday.

The Syrian regime may be their sworn enemy, but rebels fighting to bring down President Bashar Assad say they pay hard cash to government agents for guns and bullets.

For Syria's plethora of armed opposition groups, obtaining weapons is a constant struggle. Furious with the West for failing to provide heavy weaponry, they say they have little choice but to line Assad's coffers.