Internet back on in Damascus amid heavy shelling

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The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Saturday that various regions in the outskirts of Damascus are being shelled by the regime forces in an attempt to dominate over the strongholds of opposition fighters.

The Observatory added that the area of al-Basatin located between the Damascus’ neighborhood of Kfarsousa and the city of Daraya is being shelled by pro-regime troops who are clashing with opposition fighters in an attempt to take control over al-Basatin.

Meanwhile, the General Authority of the Syrian Revolution said that Douma, East Damascus has been undergoing shelling for hours.

It added that the outskirts of Damascus has been undergoing escalatory military operations especially in the past few days since Syrian air force jets bombarded rebel targets on Friday close to the Damascus airport road.

In Aleppo, the observatory reported that clashes erupted between regime soldiers and opposition fighters from different combat battalions around the army’s infantry school. The opposition troops were trying to storm into the school following a days-long siege.

In Homs, the city of al-Kaysar is being heavily shelled by pro-regime troops who are trying to recover neighborhoods in Homs and areas controlled by opposition fighters.

This as a pro-regime troop returned to an oil field in Deir el-Zour after having withdrawn from it on Thursday evening. The force included 150 soldiers equipped with heavy tanks and armored personnel carriers.

The Observatory pointed out that the opposition fighters are kilometers away from this field and did not enter it for fear of mines.

On another note, residents said the Internet was working in Syria's capital of Damascus on Saturday, after a two-day blackout that experts said was highly likely to have been caused by authorities.

President Bashar al-Assad's government has been accused before of cutting Internet and telephone connections to block opposition activists and rebel communications during the 20-month revolt.

Authorities had attributed the latest outage to a "terrorist" attack or a technical fault.

This as a U.S. company shut down the website of the Syrian official news agency SANA "under the pretext of implementing sanctions against Syria", according to the Syrian state TV. The TV considered this step as a new hostile measure against the Syrian media.

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