Syrian troops were Monday battling armed rebels in parts of Damascus and the second city Aleppo, activists said, as the regime spurned Arab League calls for President Bashar al-Assad to quit.
The foreign ministry meanwhile said chemical weapons would be used only in the event of an external attack on the country, amid growing international concerns Damascus is preparing to deploy its entire arsenal against the rebels.
Jittery residents reported hearing gunfire and explosions into the early hours of the morning in the upscale Mazzeh neighbourhood of west Damascus, while activists reported shelling in several other flashpoint neighbourhoods.
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 neighbourhood and featured an interview with one soldier.
Regime forces also "chased the remnants of the terrorists in Barzeh," in the northeast of Damascus, the report said.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the government offensive in Barzeh was being spearheaded by "the feared Fourth Brigade" commanded by Assad's powerful younger brother Maher and has sparked a mass exodus of residents.
The Local Coordination Committees, which organises activists on the ground in Syria, meanwhile reported that military reinforcements were sent during the night to a number of Damascus neighbourhoods rocked by clashes since the rebels announced the launch of "Operation Damascus Volcano" a week ago.
The LCC also reported fierce clashes during the night and into the morning between rebel forces and Syrian troops in the northern city of Aleppo, where the rebel Free Syrian Army says a war of "liberation" is underway.
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 Assad's troops.
The Britain-based 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.
The watchdog group said that more than 19,000 people have been killed since the uprising against Assad's regime began in March 2011.
The spiralling violence has alarmed Syria's neighbours and prompted a meeting late Sunday in Doha of Arab League foreign ministers, who in a statement called on Assad to "renounce power," promising that he and his family would be offered "a safe exit."
"There is agreement on the need for the rapid resignation of President Bashar al-Assad," Qatar's Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani told journalists after the meeting wound up in the small hours Monday.
But foreign ministry spokesman Jihad Makdissi said Syria firmly rejected the demand.
"We are sorry that the Arab League has descended to this level concerning a member state of this institution," he told a Damascus news conference. "This decision only concerns the Syrian people, who are the sole masters of the fate of their governments."
Makdissi also stressed that Syria would never use chemical weapons against its own people.
"Syria will not use any chemical or other unconventional weapons against its civilians, and will only use them in case of external aggression," he said.
"Any stocks of chemical weapons that may exist, will never, ever be used against the Syrian people," he said, adding that in the event of foreign attack, "the generals will be deciding when and how we use them."
Fears have been rising that Assad's regime might be prepared to use the country's arsenal of chemical weapons in the repression of a 16-month uprising after reports its stocks were being moved around the country.
The statement came a day after the US said it would "hold accountable" any Syrian official involved in the release or use of the country's chemical weapons.
Makdissi also vowed that Syrian forces would soon regain control of several border posts that rebel forces seized along the frontier with Iraq and Turkey.
"Two border posts are currently outside the control (of authorities), but they have been out of use since June and it is easy to send a few armed men to take them over," he said.
The rebels "will not hold onto them and they will be gone in a few days," he added.
Fighting has intensified since a Wednesday bombing that killed national security chief General Hisham Ikhtiyar, Defence Minister General Daoud Rajha, Assad's brother-in-law Assef Shawkat and General Hassan Turkmani, head of the regime's crisis cell on the uprising.
The Syrian National Council, the country's main opposition alliance in exile, said in a statement Monday that the fighting in cities across the country was a sign that the rebels were "at the gates of victory."
"What is happening in Damascus and Aleppo and other Syrian towns in recent days is a crucial step to establish a new phase of history in our country and the region as well," SNC spokesman George Sabra said in a statement.
The EU meanwhile beefed up sanctions against Assad's regime on Monday and agreed to tighten an arms embargo by inspecting vessels and planes suspected of carrying arms, diplomats in Brussels said.
EU foreign ministers began talks in Brussels with an agreement to freeze the assets of 26 Syrians and three firms close to the Assad regime in the 17th round of sanctions since protests erupted last year, diplomats said.
They will be added to an existing EU blacklist of 129 people and 49 entities.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/arab-nations-urge-assad-quit-fighting-rages-031044840.html
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