Over the past few weeks the fighting in the Syrian capital of Damascus has steadily grown worse as the rebels continue their assaults on the government-held city.
A Syrian soldier aims his rifle at free Syrian Army fighters during clashes in the Damascus suburb of Daraya, Syria on Dec. 2. Intense fighting persists as rebels try to push their way back into the capital, where President Bashar Assad has his power base.
SANA/AP
EnlargeFighting between rebels and government forces raged near the Syrian capital Damascus on Monday, forcing an inbound commercial jet to turn back while the U.N. said it was withdrawing staff because of deteriorating security conditions.
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Lebanese security officials said Jihad Makdissi, a polished Foreign Ministry spokesman known for defending the regime of President Bashar Assad in fluent English, flew from Beirut to London. But it was not immediately clear whether he had defected.
The fighting over the past few weeks in and around Damascus has been the most serious in the capital since July, when rebels captured several neighborhoods before a swift government counteroffensive swept them out. The spike in violence recently is concentrated in the ring of mostly poor suburbs around Damascus but often bleeds into the capital itself as rebels bring their fight closer to Assad's seat of power. Assad's forces have so far repelled major rebel advances on the capital, though their hold may be slipping.
"The security situation has become extremely difficult, including in Damascus," said Radhouane Nouicer, the U.N.'s regional humanitarian coordinator for Syria.
Nouicer said the U.N. was withdrawing most of its international staff from Syria due to security issues, adding that up to one quarter of the 100 international staff working for several U.N. agencies could leave by week's end. There are about 900 more local staff working for the U.N. in Syria, officials said.
U.N. teams are also stopping most staff trips outside Damascus.
In another sign of deteriorating security, an Egyptian commercial jet aborted a trip to Damascus in mid-flight because of violence near the airport. The EgyptAir flight from Cairo rerouted about 30 minutes after takeoff because Egyptian officials received word from their counterparts in Damascus that the area near the airport was not safe, Egyptian airport officials said.
EgyptAir canceled all further flights to Syria for Monday and Tuesday and will decide later whether to resume flights later in the week, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to reporters.
EgyptAir had just resumed flights following a three-day suspension because of violence near the airport.
Emirates airlines said on its website that all flights to Syria were suspended "until further notice."
The Britain-based opposition activist group Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the clashes were within three kilometers (2 miles) of the airport, which lies about 25 kilometers (15 miles) southeast of the city center. The state news service reported clashes in an area about 15 kilometers (9 miles) from the airport. It said nothing about flight cancelations.
More than 40,000 people have been killed since the Syrian revolt started in March last year.
Leaders of Russia ? a key supporter of the Assad regime ? and opposition ally Turkey discussed disagreements over Syria.
After talks in Istanbul, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that the deployment of NATO antiaircraft missiles along the Turkish border could make the conflict worse.
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