Car bombs reportedly kill 16 near Damascus

Two car bombs ripped through Damascus’s suburbs Saturday, killing 16 people, including a brigadier general, Syria’s state-run Sana news agency reported.

The report could not be independently confirmed.

A large blast in the Sbaineh neighborhood of Damascus, near a Palestinian refugee camp, left 15 people dead.

A separate blast in a second Damascus suburb Saturday killed Brig. Gen. Taher Sbeira, the regime reported.

Syrian rebels have been locked in a nearly 18-month long civil war with forces loyal to President Bashar Assad. Over 20,000 people have been killed in the clashes and over 200,000 people have fled the country amid reports of indiscriminate killings of civilians.

Opposition forces have been working to make inroads in the capital and in the northern metropolis of Aleppo, but are frequently outmatched by regime forces employing helicopters, jets, heavy artillery and tanks.

Areas under rebel control often come under heavy fire from the air, sending refugees streaming into neighboring countries.

On Saturday, rebels took control of an air defense facility and attacked an air base in a bid to strike back at Assad’s air power.

The push was part if a new offensive by the rebels dubbed “Northern Volcano,” targeting security facilities in the city and the surrounding province, including an artillery training school, a compound of the feared air force intelligence, and a large army checkpoint.

Regime forces have responded by pounding rebel controlled areas of Aleppo the country’s largest city, from the air.

Despite the government’s control of Damascus, opposition fighters continue to stage attacks using hit-and-run tactics in neighborhoods where they enjoy popular support, activists say.

Early Saturday, government forces bombarded the capital’s southern neighborhood of Tadamon followed street fighting with rebels there, the Observatory said. The LCC said troops also shelled the nearby neighborhood of Hajar Aswad.

Last week rebels reported they had destroyed ten helicopters at an airport near Idlib.

The fighting in the north has sent some 70,000 people fleeing into Turkey, where the government is struggling to absorb the refugees. On Saturday tens of thousands of people in the southern Turkish town of Antakya, reportedly troubled by the influx, marched in support of Assad.

According to Al Jazeera, the protesters called for peace and for Assad to remain in power.