DAMASCUS, Jan. 2 (Xinhua) -- Violence intensified Wednesday in several areas of Syria, including a military airport in the north, near a military hospital in the capital Damascus and at the country's main Palestinian refugee camp.
Armed groups attacked at early Wednesday the military airport of Taftanas in the northwestern province of Idlib, local al- Ekhbaria TV said, adding government troops repulsed the attack and rendered many of the assailants killed or injured.
The airport has been a top priority for the rebels who are hoping for taking over it and paralyzing the power of the Syrian air force in the northern slice of Syria.
Other media reports said the clashes at the airport were still incessant.
In the countryside of Damascus, armed rebels attacked the military hospital of Harasta on Wednesday as the clashes there are still ongoing.
In another suburb of Damascus, Dahiet al-Assad, mortars fired allegedly by the rebels landed at a mosque in the pro-government suburb, causing material damage only, report said.
Clashes have also intensified in al-Yarmouk camp for Palestinian refugees in Damascus with mortar shells slamming several areas and snipers nesting on rooftops firing at people, reports said.
The area has seen intense fighting over the past month between the rebels and local committees loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Most of the camp's families have fled the violence to nearby areas or to Lebanon. A couple of weeks ago, many of those displaced dared the violence and returned to their homes hoping for a reduced violence that hasn't materialized yet.
Meanwhile, the fighting in hotspots around Damascus intensified Wednesday amid reports of Syrian airstrikes on rebels' strongholds in several hotspots.
The Local Coordination Committees (LCC), activists' network, said that many people have been killed Wednesday when an airstrike hit a gas station at Damascus' suburb of Mlaiha, a rebel stronghold in Syria's 22-months crisis.
The LCC posted what it said images of human remains and charred bodies of those killed in the Mlaiha airstrike.
The LCC also reported shelling and fighting elsewhere and placed the initial death toll of Wednesday's chaos at 30.The activists' account couldn't be verified independently.
Syria's civil war has been gaining momentum and showing no sign of backing down amid the increasing number of foreign jihadists fighting alongside the rebels across the country against the Syrian troops.
Activists say that more than 40,000 people have so far been killed since the violence swept Syria more than a year and a half ago.
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