Syrian forces tightened their grip on the outskirts of Damascus on Monday, as Arab and Western nations pushed a UN resolution condemning President Bashar al-Assad’s regime. Activists have described the violence since last week as the most intense of the 10-month-old uprising, with at least 13 civilians and six members of the security forces killed Monday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. On Sunday, 80 people were reportedly killed, equally divided between military and civilian casualties. Regime forces, who were reported to have executed a founder of the deserter army, appeared determined to wrest back control of Damascus suburbs which have intermittently fallen into the hands of rebel fighters. Near the capital, troops penetrated Rankus, 40 kilometres (25 miles) north of the capital, after having shelled the town which the army had encircled for the past six days, the Observatory said. Activists at the scene said deserters pulled out of Rankus as the army moved in while in the eastern suburbs, and that snipers were “shooting at everything that moves” in Irbin and Hammuriyeh.
