Syrian forces are besieging a key town in the Qalamoun mountains, activists said on Sunday, a region used by rebels to cross from Lebanon and which links the capital to government strongholds along the coast.
Activist video footage showed artillery damage in the small highway town of Qara, roughly 50 km (30 miles) north of Damascus. The United Nations says that around one thousand families fled Qara for the Lebanese frontier on Saturday as the army closed in.
But U.N. refugee agency spokeswoman Dana Sleiman said there were no more families crossing the border on Sunday. This could be a result of closed army checkpoints around Qara.
Over one million Syrians are trapped in areas where aid deliveries have stalled, the United Nations says.
On Sunday, the army opened a checkpoint to civilians in the southern Damascus suburbs of Beit Sahem, a rare opportunity to escape a months-long siege for civilians.
The Qalamoun advance is the latest of several military offensives that have put opposition forces on the defensive.
State news agency SANA said that the armed forces took control of more areas on the southeast approach to rebel-held Aleppo, in the north.
Despite losses, activist video footage showed that insurgents were continuing to attack Base 80 near Aleppo airport, which they lost to the army last week.
More than 120,000 people have been killed so far in the war, now in its third year, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which closely monitors the violence in Syria through a network of activists across the country.
Russian plane lands in Syria:
A Russian plane loaded with medical aid supplies landed on Sunday morning in Syria’s port city Latakia.
Russian medical sources reported that the plane was carrying 40 tons of medical supplies.
Russian President Vladimir Putin vowed to send pharmaceuticals, first-aid kits and other medical aid to Syria after a phone conversation with his Syrian counterpart President Bashar Assad.
In this regard, Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that President Assad had described a “difficult health situation” in Syria and asked Russia for assistance.
Frozen bank accounts:
Syrian bank accounts frozen abroad are gradually being freed up for use in food purchases, the head of Syria's General Foreign Trade Organization (GFTO) told Reuters on Sunday, with France being the most committed to releasing the funds.
The European Union, United States and other Western countries have imposed sanctions on President Bashar al-Assad's government over his crackdown on the revolt in his country, but these do not apply to food.
The Union De Banques Arabes Francaises (UBAF) has approved the release of funds for purchases, Tarek al Taweel, Director General of GFTO, said over the telephone.
"UBAF bank in France has been very cooperative," Taweel said.
France in September cleared the use of frozen Syrian bank assets to fund the export of food to the country as part of a European Union system that allows such funds to be used for humanitarian ends.
REUTERS/LBCI/AP