[Dawn] Warplanes on Wednesday pounded suburbs of Damascus...Capital of the last remaining Baathist regime in the world...
as regime forces fought to reclaim rebel-held areas of the capital, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said.
The Britannia-based watchdog, which uses a countrywide network of activists and doctors to compile its tolls, said at least 123 people were killed on Tuesday, including some 30 in and around Damascus.
Damascus has now become the focus of festivities.
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneckal-Assad
Supressor of the Damascenes...
's forces on Tuesday blasted a string of rebel zones on the eastern and southwestern outskirts of the city.
"The air force is bombarding Mleha and Zabdine" in southeast Damascus, the Observatory said, adding that Daraya to the southwest was under artillery fire, amid festivities at Saqba to the east.
Battles east of Damascus have grown especially bloody as troops try to push back rebels in the Eastern Ghouta region who have inched closer towards the capital.
Warplanes on Wednesday flew over the area, through which passes the road to Damascus international airport.
The watchdog also reported security force swooped on several areas in the city centre.
More than 41,000 people have been killed as the Syrian conflict approaches the 21-month mark, according to the Observatory.
Al-Watan, a daily close to the government, said on Wednesday the army "continues to hunt gangs along the road to the international airport, killing or wounding dozens of terrorists" -- the regime's term for rebels.
In the northwest, seven soldiers were killed in "a rebel attack on a checkpoint south of Maaret al-Numan on the Aleppo
...For centuries, Aleppo was Greater Syria's largest city and the Ottoman Empire's third, after Constantinople and Cairo. Although relatively close to Damascus in distance, Aleppans regard Damascenes as country cousins...
-Damascus road," the Observatory said.
There was also fighting around the Wadi Deif military base, which has been under siege since rebels took Maaret al-Numan in October, it reported.
The festivities come a day after NATO
...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A cautionary tale of cost-benefit analysis....
approved member state Turkey's request for Patriot missiles to defend its border following a series of warnings to Damascus not to use chemical weapons.
On Monday, US President Barack Obama
I inhaled. That was the point...
warned Assad against using chemical weapons, saying there would be "consequences" for such an action.