Syrian security chief dies from bomb wounds as fighting rages in Damascus - Washington Post

Ikhtiyar was the fourth member of President Bashar al-Assad's inner circle killed by the explosion, which shattered the already slim chance of a negotiated peace deal and brought the civil revolt that has raged for 16 months into the heart of Assad's government.

In Qaboun, a neighborhood that has seen some of the most intense fighting in recent days, shabiha militiamen reportedly carried out executions, according to anti-government groups, who posted a gruesome video of two men who had been shot in the head and back with their hands tied behind their back

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a opposition group based in Britain, estimated that 310 people were killed in fighting on Thursday, which would make it one of the bloodiest days since the uprising began. 

Syrian rebels seized control of several critical border crossings, offering fresh evidence that Assad's regime is starting to unravel. Government forces deployed snipers on rooftops and helicopter gunships in flash-point neighborhoods. More than 20,000 people were reported to have fled into neighboring Lebanon.

Video footage posted on YouTube on Friday dramatically illustrated the extent to which the fighting is spreading into the city center. One showed bodies lying in the street as gunfire crackled all around on central Damascus's Khalid Ibn Walid Street, a major thoroughfare leading from the commercial downtown area to the restive Midan district. Another showed panicked civilians fleeing for cover to the sound of intense gunfire in the upscale neighborhood of Tijara, where many banks and companies have their offices.

With the veto by Russia and China of a U.N. Security Council resolution aimed at Syria effectively heralding an end to diplomatic efforts to resolve the crisis, the spiraling violence seemed to leave little doubt that both sides are gearing up for a fight to the finish.

"There's no way the armed opposition would go for a negotiated settlement now," said Jeffrey White, defense fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. "They believe they are winning, and I think they probably are."

Russia, which along with China has previously resisted expansion of U.N. operations in Syria, is an arms supplier to the Assad regime.

Russian news agencies reported Friday that the ship carrying refurbished attack helicopters for Syria has unloaded them in the port of Baltiysk, in Russia's Baltic region of Kaliningrad.

The ship, which headed for Syria last month but turned back after it was stripped of insurance, had been reregistered under the Russian flag and was sailing from the Arctic port of Murmansk.