When night falls in Damascus, gaggles of determined revellers still head out on the town seeking to drown out the thunder of outgoing artillery fire with the boom of music.
Snipers shot at a UN team set to inspect the site of a suspected deadly chemical weapons attack on Monday, further ratcheting up tensions as the West warned of possible military action against Damascus.
Syria on Thursday came under intense pressure to allow UN weapons inspectors to visit the site of an alleged chemical weapons attack near Damascus which the opposition says left hundreds dead and provoked revulsion around the world.
AFP - At least 15 civilians, including a child and three women, died on Sunday in shelling of towns east of Damascus, a monitoring group said, while tanks pounded rebel enclaves on the Syrian capital's edges.
The Red Cross said Monday it was in talks with the Syrian authorities and rebels to halt the violence so that it can deliver aid, amid calls to allow women and children out of the besieged city of Homs.
Syrian activists called for a "day of defiance" in Damascus Sunday after security forces shot dead a mourner at a funeral that turned into one of the largest anti-regime rallies ever seen in the capital.
