Syria: Daily firefights in north and west shake confidence in Assad forces

PLAIN-CLOTHED police stationed near the presidential palace, a grey marble compound towering over Damascus, fire automatic rifles into the night as rebels encroach towards the seat of Bashar al-Assad’s power.

Gunmen guarding the luxury apartment of an intelligence officer nearby monitor incoming traffic from behind newly erected concrete walls and roadblocks that have become a familiar sight in residential neighbourhoods, according to residents and diplomats in the capital.

Fifteen months into Syria’s uprising, now coupled with an armed insurgency against Mr Assad that is spreading from outlying regions, the rebels have infiltrated Damascus.

They are beginning to attack army and security strongpoints and fighting gun battles with loyalist troops.

When night falls, demonstrations that were once easily put down by the feared shabiha militia break out under rebel protection, not far from central areas of the city. Aside from the protests, streets quickly empty of pedestrians and Mr Assad’s forces erect roadblocks separating the main districts, residents say.

A video broadcast by activists on YouTube showed crowds at an anti-Assad rally on Monday dancing and carrying huge white and green flags from the era before his Baath Party took power in a coup in 1963.

“I think we’re heading to the point where the regime will be only in control of the most central parts of Damascus and the airport road,” said a western diplomat still in the city.

Residents say gunfire can now be heard daily in the northern neighbourhoods of Barzeh and al-Qaboun and in the Kafr Souseh district in the west, home to a fortress-like intelligence headquarters.