Heavy fighting erupted in Damascus as rebels launched an offensive against President Bashar al Assad's forces, breaking a lull in the conflict, activists said.
Mr Assad's forces also came under attack in the east, where a suicide car bomb struck a military intelligence compound in the city of Palmyra, causing dozens of casualties, they said.
Authorities in Damascus closed the main Abbasid Square and the Fares al Khoury thoroughfare, as fighters attacked road-blocks and fortifications with rocket-propelled grenades and mortars.
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