Syrian jets target rebels near Damascus airport

Syrian air force jets bombarded rebel targets on Friday close to the Damascus airport road and a regional airline said the violence had halted international flights to the capital.

Activists said security forces clashed with rebels trying to topple President Bashar al-Assad around Aqraba and Babilla districts on the southeastern outskirts of the Damascus which lead to the international airport.

Internet connections and most telephone lines were down for a second day, the worst communications outage in a 20-month-old uprising in which 40,000 people have been killed, hundreds of thousands have fled the country, and millions been displaced.

The mostly Sunni Muslim rebels who are battling Assad, from Syria’s Alawite minority linked to Shi’ite Islam, have been making gains around Syria by overrunning military bases and have been ramping up attacks on Damascus, his seat of power.

A resident of central Damascus told reporters he could see black smoke rising from the east and the south of the city on Friday morning and could hear the constant boom of shelling.

“Airlines are not operating to Damascus today,” said a Dubai-based airline official. EgyptAir and Emirates suspended flights to Syria on Thursday.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a British-based opposition monitoring group, said jets were bombarding targets in rural areas around Aqraba and Babilla, where rebels clashed with Assad’s forces.