A heavy firefight has broken out between Free Syrian Army rebels and forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad in a main district of the capital Damascus, Reuters news agency reported.

The sound of heavy machineguns and rocket-propelled grenades on Monday echoed throughout the night from the western neighborhood of al-Mezze, one of the most heavily guarded areas of the capital and home to several security installations, residents told the agency by telephone.

The latest fighting came a day after a car bomb in Syria's second biggest city of Aleppo killed at least three people, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights has said.

Residents told the UK-based rights group that they saw bodies in the streets after Sunday’s blast close to a state security office.

Al Jazeera's Zeina Khodr, reporting from neighboring Lebanon, said it is not the first time Aleppo was hit during the now year-long uprising against the rule of President Bashar al-Assad.

"We have seen an explosion in Aleppo just a few weeks ago. That explosion targeted the security headquarters."

The opposition also reported heavy raids by security forces and fighting with rebels in northern and southern Syrian provinces and suburbs of Damascus.

In the capital, as crowds gathered for memorials to the 27 victims of Saturday's car bombs, security forces broke up an opposition march of more than 200 people when protesters began shouting "the people want to topple the regime".

The phrase has echoed through the wave of Arab uprisings that began last year and has toppled autocratic rulers in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Yemen.

"They were walking through an area in central Damascus, near SANA (the state news agency),” Rami Abdelrahman from the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

"At first they shouted slogans against violence and the police didn't do anything, but as soon as they started to call for regime change the police rushed in and started beating people with canes," Abdelrahman said.

The protest, which called for non-violent resistance to the government, had been led by moderate opposition leaders previously tolerated by the government because of their calls for dialogue and rejection of foreign intervention.

Growing insurgency

Activists said the Sunday march in Damascus aimed to commemorate the peaceful roots of Syria's uprising, which has been overshadowed by the growing armed insurgency against state security forces.

Heavy fighting also raged in the northwestern province of Deir Ezzor and military vehicles were torched, activists said.

Rebels also blew up a bridge in southern Deraa, birthplace of the uprising, the UK-based rights group said. The bridge had been used to transport supplies to security forces besieging the city.

The rights group said security forces raided the town of Artouz, a Damascus suburb, looking for wanted men. The Local Co-ordination Committee, another opposition group, said residents they could hear heavy gunfire.

Technical experts from the UN and the Organization of Islamic Co-operation are in Syria on a mission to assess the humanitarian impact of the bloodshed, a senior OIC official said on Sunday.

"The joint OIC-UN mission entered Syria on Friday to carry out an evaluation of humanitarian aid," on a mission led by the Syrian government, its assistant secretary general, Atta al-Mannan Bakhit, told AFP news agency.

He said the mission, with three OIC experts in the team, would cover 15 cities, after which a report would be submitted to the Saudi-based Islamic grouping and the UN on the humanitarian needs of the Syrian population.

The United Nations estimates that more than 8,000 people have died so far in the violence following the revolt against four decades of rule by the Assad family.

Authorities say they are fighting insurgents who have so far killed more than 2,000 members of the security forces.

PHOTO CAPTION
Rescue teams inspecting the blast scene following a car bomb in Aleppo's Suleimaniya district [SANA]

Aljazeera