Heavy fighting is reported on the streets of Damascus.
United Nations supervisors say opposition forces are attacking Syrian government troops as well as the electricity stations supplying power to the Syrian Army bases. They have also bombed six buses carrying the soldiers loyal to the regime of President Bashar al-Assad.
The battles are said to be the fiercest since the beginning of the revolution sparked by the Arab Spring uprising that began in March 2011.
At least three tank shells were fired in residential areas in the capital's central neighborhood of Qaboun, according to one report. Intensive assault rifle gunfire marked the clash. At least five people were killed.
Fighting also was sparked in the neighborhood of Barzeh on Friday, when troops opened fire on anti-Assad gatherings. Rebels responded with their own gunfire, activists said.
Opposition forces attacked a government loyalist checkpoint in the outlying neighborhood of Kfar Souseh in the wee hours of Saturday morning.
According to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, at least 52 civilians died around the country on Saturday. Government troops stormed into the posh neighborhood of Ghouta in the central city of Homs to conduct raids, killing at least five.
In addition, nine women and children died, plus 11 others in a heavy pre-dawn government army artillery attack on the southern city of Dera'a, where the revolt began in March 2011. Six children were killed by a shell that exploded in a house where 10 people took cover during fierce fighting in the coastal region of Latakiya.
In a meeting with the Druze community in the Golan Heights last week, MK Ayoub Kara was presented with evidence that clearly indicates the use of chemical weapons by the Assad regime, including photos of big black clouds suspected of containing chemical material that were fired over the areas where battles between rebels and regime forces have been taking place. Syrian opposition sources claimed Thursday that aircraft belonging to the Syrian Air Force dropped toxic material into the province of Dera'a, which smells like sulfur and causes drowsiness and unconsciousness. It was also reported that Assad’s forces had used unidentified gas shells on civilians in Dera'a, Hama and Deir ez-Zor.
Also on Saturday, for the first time the United Nations managed to issue an independent confirmation of the massacre of nearly 80 people who were murdered by Assad troops at the village of Mazra'at al-Qubair.
Despite the government having blocked the U.N. monitors from the site long enough to have time to conduct a hasty coverup, troops did not have time to clean up all the evidence, and enough was left for U.N. monitors to film the obvious signs of the shocking carnage.