Fighting reported inside Damascus in possible start of rebel assault on capital

Residents of Damascus report that rebels appear to have begun entering the city, seemingly marking the start of the most significant stage yet of the insurgents’ lightning blitz.

It was not immediately clear where was the source of the shooting, two residents who live in a residential area close to the center of the capital tell Reuters they heard intense sounds of shooting nearby.

In Barzeh, a neighborhood on Damascus’s north side, a resident tells CNN that fighting is already taking place between regime soldiers and rebel fighters.

“I saw rebel fighters moving through the inner alleys of Barzeh toward Police Club Street, and I can hear very loud sounds of clashes,” the resident is quoted saying.

A rebel source claims the city is all but fallen, and claims recon units ae already in the city searching for Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad.

Rebel fighters have been massing near Damascus over the past day after the opposition force ran through major cities in central Syria, cutting access between the capital and Assad’s power base on the coast, where Russia maintains a major naval base.