video transcript

Heavy fighting is raging here in the outskirts of Damascus, weeks into government efforts to recapture a strategic suburb, according to amateur videos uploaded to social media websites. Reuters is unable to independently verify the content of the videos. Here in Daraya, a suburb of the Syrian capital, shells and rockets are seen raining down on the residential area. Daraya is one of a series of interconnected Sunni Muslim suburbs that ring Damascus, and have been at the forefront of the 21-month-old revolt against President Bashar al-Assad. Another video uploaded to a social media website claimed to show a government bombing in Idlib Province. Rebels have recently succeeded in taking several outlying towns and have also clashed with government troops near Damascus International Airport. Assad's forces have largely relied on aerial and artillery bombardments rather than infantry throughout Syria's civil war.