A Syrian combat helicopter crashed in Damascus today, state television said, as fierce fighting reportedly gripped the east of the capital a day after the regime was accused of a new massacre.
A series of explosions rocked the city from about dawn and awatchdog reported heavy shelling and fighting between government troops andrebels in several eastern and northeastern districts and nearby towns.
State television said the chopper came down near a mosque inQaboon, but gave no further information, while the Syrian Observatory for HumanRights said it believed it "was hit while it was being used in fightingnearby."
Helicopter gunships were shelling the neighbouring districtof Jubar, where anti-regime sentiment is strong, the Observatory said, andreported heavy fighting between the rebel Free Syrian Army and governmenttroops.
There was no immediate comment from the FSA, which claimedto have shot down a Syrian warplane on August 13 in the eastern province ofDeir Ezzor.
The assault on the northeast of the capital was unleashed aday after opposition activists accused President Bashar al-Assad's regime ofgruesome new massacre in the southwestern town of Daraya.
The Observatory said hundreds of bodies had been found inthe small Sunni Muslim town after what activists described as brutal five-dayonslaught of shelling, summary executions and house-to-house raids bygovernment troops.
