Syrian troops backed by helicopter gunships fought rebels trying to seize central Aleppo on Tuesday and pursued a campaign to regain full control of the capital Damascus, residents and opposition activists said.

After a week of battles between President Bashar al-Assad's forces and his opponents in Damascus, fighting intensified in Aleppo, a more populous commercial city that had long seemed immune to the 16-month-old upheaval convulsing Syria.

Rebels seeking to capture downtown Aleppo were combating Syrian troops and intelligence men at the gates of the Old City, a U.N. World Heritage site, residents and activists said.

Witnesses reported the army was bombarding several quarters with artillery and mortars as helicopters flew overhead. www.trust.org

Clinton says "it is not too late for Syria's Assad to commence planning for a political transition

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U.N. Security Council approves 30-day extension for Syria monitors

Russia, which with China vetoed an earlier resolution which would have opened the door to sanctions on the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, dropped its objections to the British proposal after it was broadened to require both government forces and rebel fighters to take steps to halt the violence.

The new resolution states that the council would only consider further extensions to the mission "in the event that the Secretary-General reports and the Security Council confirms the cessation of the use of heavy weapons and a reduction in the level of violence sufficient by all sides" to allow the UNSMIS monitors to implement their mandate.
Both the United States and Britain described the new resolution as a last chance for the observers.

"If over the next 30 days there is a change in that dynamic and those conditions are met then of course the Security Council, on a recommendation by the Secretary-General, will look again at the future of UNSMIS," Britain's U.N. Ambassador Mark Lyall Grant told reporters.
"But if the situation does not change then obviously UNSMIS will be withdrawn after 30 days," he said.

AN EXIT PLAN?

The U.N. Syria mission has up to 300 unarmed military observers whose role has been to monitor a failed April 12 ceasefire in Syria. Most of their monitoring activity was suspended on June 16 due to increased risk from rising violence.

There are also some 100 civilian staff working toward a political solution and monitoring issues like human rights.

The U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Susan Rice, told reporters that Washington had reluctantly acceded to the new resolution, but described it simply as an exit plan for the monitoring teams.

"Today's vote to extend UNSMIS for a final period of 30 days was not the resolution the United States had hoped to adopt in the first instance. Our strong preference was to adopt the resolution that was regrettably vetoed yesterday," Rice said.

Rice said the extension would "allow (UNSMIS) to withdraw safely and in an orderly fashion."

Rice said she was skeptical that the Syrian authorities would stop using heavy weapons and the violence would subside enough for the council to consider a renewal of the mission beyond the 30-day extension.
The Security Council vote ended several hectic days of U.N. diplomacy where the United States and its allies faced off against Russia and China over the way forward on Syria as violence in the country escalated.
Syrian government forces fought to recapture border posts and parts of Damascus from rebels on Friday, seeking to take back the initiative following a bomb attack this week which killed four of Assad's top security aides.

U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon has recommended shifting the emphasis of the work of UNSMIS from monitoring the nonexistent ceasefire to pursuing a political solution to the crisis.

Diplomats said only half of the 300 unarmed observers would be needed for Ban's suggested shift in focus. The others would return to their home countries, but be ready to redeploy again at short notice.

(Reporting by Michelle Nichols; Writing by Andrew Quinn; Editing by Jackie Frank)

250 PEOPLE KILLED IN SYRIA IN HIGHEST DEATH TOLL - OPPOSITION

BEIRUT, July 19 (Reuters)- More than 250 people were killed in Syria on Thursday, an opposition monitoring group said, the highest death toll in a single day since the revolt against President Bashar al-Assad erupted 16 months ago.

The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human rights said 155 civilians, including 44 people in Damascus where pitched battles have raged for five days, and 93 security forces personnel were killed.

It said it was still gathering information on the number of rebel fighters who had been killed from sources on the ground and expected the overage death toll to rise significantly.

FLASH: SYRIA'S BORDER CROSSING WITH TURKEY AT TOWN OF JARABLUS FALLS INTO REBEL HANDS AFTER ASSAD'S FORCES ABANDON TOWN - OPPOSITION ACTIVISTS

Update: Syrian rebels have control of the entire border between Iraq and Syria, AFP reports sourcing the deputy interior minister in Baghdad.

The White House says they do not support extending the UN mission in Syria after today's failure by the security council to pass a resolution.

Syrian rebels try to seize key Turkey border crossing

By Suleiman Al-Khalidi

CILVEGOZU, Turkey, July 19 (Reuters) - Rebel fighters raided a Syrian army outpost at a key border crossing with Turkey on Thursday in an attempt to seize control of the gate, but were forced to withdraw after coming under attack by military helicopters, a rebel spokesman said.
The dawn attack was the third time in 10 days rebels have tried to seize the Bab al-Hawa gate, a vital commercial crossing in northwestern Syria, opposite the Turkish Cilvegozu gate in Hatay province.

A Reuters reporter on the Turkish side of the border crossing said he could still hear intermittent gunfire on Thursday evening coming from the Syrian side and black smoke rising into the air 2-3 km (miles) from the border.
Ahmad Zaidan, spokesman for an opposition group called the Higher Council of the Revolution's Leadership, said rebels were in charge of large areas around the border crossing and that they wanted to gain control of the gate itself.

He said the raid was also meant to provide an opportunity for opposition sympathisers among the government soldiers to defect. Most defections, he said, were pre-planned whereby sympathisers would know of an impending rebel attack.

"We withdrew because we didn't have enough anti-aircraft missiles, and to preserve the lives of those sympathetic soldiers who weren't able to defect," Zaidan told Reuters by telephone from Hatay.

The rebels attacked the army garrison made up of some 200 troops but had to pull back when government helicopters were called in. The rebels had planned for 80 soldiers to defect but only 14 managed to escape, Zaidan said.

The border crossing, which is still under the control of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's forces, has been closed since the attack and around 40 Syrian and Saudi trucks lined up on the Turkish side were unable to cross.
While cross-border trade and traffic has been greatly reduced as violence inside Syria has increased, border gates along the 910 km (560 mile) Turkey-Syria border have largely remained open and vehicles are free to cross.

The border raid came as rebels clashed with troops loyal to Assad in Damascus and a day after a bomb attack on a security meeting in the Syrian capital killed three of the president's closest allies. (Full Story)
Turkey, which has called on Assad to step down, is giving sanctuary to opposition members and fighters on its soil and is providing shelter to more than 40,000 Syrian refugees fleeing violence at home.

(Writing by Jonathon Burch; Editing by Alison Williams)

White House: US has made it clear to the Syrian government that it will be held accountable if it uses chemical weapons against the opposition.

Update: White House calls Russia and China veto of Syria UN resolution regrettable and highly unfortunate. White House says those who voted against UN resolution are on the wrong side of the Syrian people and the wrong side of peace and stability in the region.

20,000 SYRIANS CROSS INTO LEBANON AFTER VIOLENCE

About 20,000 Syrians have travelled across the main border crossing into Lebanon over the past 24 hours, a Lebanese security source working at the border said, after heavy fighting tore through several districts of Damascus.

The number of Syrians who travel through the official Masnaa border crossing usually hovers around 5,000 per day, the source said.

South Africa says draft resolution was "unbalanced" #UNSC #Syria

RT @marcellehopkins: US amb to UN Susan Rice says US “will intensify our work with a diverse range of partners outside the Security Coun ...

U.S. Ambassador Rice: The Security Council has failed utterly in its most important task on the agenda this year.

RT @MarkKornblau: @AmbassadorRice says blame does not lie with Annan, Ban, or UN Monitors. The fault lies squarely with the Assad regime ...

U.S. Ambassador Rice: Resolution would not have paved the way for foreign military intervention.

REBELS ATTACK DAMASCUS POLICE HQ - WITNESS
AMMAN

Rebels attacked the main police headquarters in Damascus on Thursday, a witness said, a day after the assassination of three of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's top lieutenants.

"Gunfire has been intense for the past hour. It is now dying down but the streets around the police command remain empty," a resident of Qanawat, an old central district where the Damascus Province Police Headquarters is located, told Reuters by phone.

(Reporting by Khaled Yacoub Oweis, Amman newsroom; Editing by Alison Williams)

"We strongly condemn this mindless and cowardly act of terrorism," India ambassador to UNSC says on Wednesday's suicide attack.

FLASH: Russia and China have vetoed a U.N. Security Council resolution that threatened Syrian authorities with sanctions.