This photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA shows Syrian rescue teams investigating the scene after an explosion in Aleppo, Syria, Sunday, March 18, 2012. An explosion ripped through a... (Associated Press) 
 
 Syrian security forces clashed Monday with gunmen in an upscale neighborhood of the capital Damascus that is home to embassies and senior officials in one of the worst confrontations in the tightly-controlled city center in the country's yearlong uprising. At least three people were killed. 
 
 The clash deep in Mazzeh district in west Damascus shows the shifting nature of the conflict in Syria, and suggests that rebels might be trying to offset government morale gains from recent successful offensives against opposition strongholds areas in the north and center of Syria by striking close to where senior regime members live. 
 
 Damascus has been largely free of the daily shootings and deaths reported across the country since the uprising against Assad began in March last year. But in addition to gunbattles in Mazzeh and in the suburbs, the capital has witnessed several major bomb attacks targeting security facilities, most recently on Saturday. The government blames "terrorists" for the bombings but the opposition says that the regime itself may be carrying them out to discredit the uprising. 
 
 Monday's fighting broke out when security forces stormed an apartment used as a hideout by an "armed terrorist" group in Mazzeh after evacuating the building of all inhabitants, the state-run news agency SANA said. 
 
 It added that the forces killed two of the gunmen and arrested the third while a member of the security forces also lost his life. SANA gave no further details. 
 
 A resident of the western Mazzeh district said automatic rifles and machineguns were used in the two-hour clash that ended at about 4 a.m. local time. "We also heard three strong explosions," said the man who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of government reprisal. 
 
 He added that the clash was close to the Swiss embassy and the home of Maj. Gen. Assef Shawkat, the deputy chief of staff for security affairs who is married to President Bashar Assad's sister, Bushra. 
 
 Armed rebels are active in Damascus' suburbs and satellite towns but rarely venture into the heart of the capital where Assad's troops are deployed in force. 
 
 The new fighting shows that rebels can still strike in the heart of the capital despite successful government offensive in the past weeks in the suburbs of Damascus, in the central city of Homs and the northern region of Idlib. 
 
 The U.N. says more than 8,000 people have been killed in the year-long uprising. 
 
 Syrian authorities claim the opposition is made up of "terrorist" groups carrying out a foreign conspiracy. 
 
 An activist in the capital said the Monday morning clashes occurred near the Political Security Directorate building. He said the clashes were followed with raids by security forces who were searching for the attackers. 
 
 The Local Coordination Committees activist group reported a heavy presence of security troops as well as pro-government gunmen known as shabiha in Mazzeh. It added that many police vehicles were patrolling the area. 
 
 The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which has a network of activists throughout Syria, said 18 of Assad's troops were wounded in the clashes. It described the clashes "as the most violent of its kind and closest to security centers in Damascus since the revolution began." 
 
 The rebel Free Syrian Army, which includes thousands of army defectors, have claimed responsibility in the past for attacks against regime forces. 
 
 The group's leader, Col. Riad al-Asaad, refused to comment on the fighting in Damascus when contacted by The Associated Press by telephone. "This is a sensitive military matter that we cannot comment about," he said from Turkey. 
 
 On Saturday, three suicide bombings in Damascus killed 27 people. Two of them also targeted government security buildings. 
 
 On Sunday, an explosion killed two and wounded 30 in the northern city of Aleppo, Syria's largest. 
 
 The Observatory said troops shelled the central village of Qalaat al-Madiq in central Hama province heavily damaging two homes. It added that troops stormed the northern village of Ebdita and set about 60 homes on fire. 
 
 The group said gunmen opened fire at a car in the northern province of Idlib killing an army lieutenant colonel and wounding two other members of the military. 
 
 ___ 
 
 Bassem Mroue can be reached on twitter at http://twitter.com/bmroue ||||| Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption The BBC's Lina Sinjab in Damascus: "The damage affected many civilian buildings" 
 
 A massive car bomb explosion in the Syrian capital, Damascus, has killed at least 53 people and injured another 200, reports say. 
 
 Syria blamed "terrorist groups linked to al-Qaeda" for the blast, which hit a central district near the headquarters of Syria's ruling Baath Party. 
 
 TV pictures showed images of bodies, wrecked cars and shattered windows. 
 
 The violence comes as Russia and the Arab League say they want to broker direct government-opposition talks. 
 
 No group has yet admitted the attack. 
 
 The Syrian foreign ministry blamed the bombing on "armed terrorist groups linked to al-Qaeda that receive financial and logistic help from abroad". 
 
 The militant Islamist al-Nusra Front previously said it had carried out many of the bombings that have rocked Syria since the uprising began in March 2011. 
 
 Meanwhile Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov described the war as "a road to nowhere". 
 
 The opposition Syrian National Coalition is holding a two-day meeting in Egypt to discuss a framework for a possible solution. 
 
 Also on Thursday, the UN and Arab League envoy for Syria, Lakhdar Brahimi, agreed to remain in office through the rest of 2013, UN spokesman Martin Nesirky told the Associated Press. Mr Brahimi's contract was due to expire on Friday. 
 
 The UN has estimated up to 70,000 people have died in the conflict in the past two years. 
 
 'Upside down' 
 
 Police and witnesses said the blast was a car bomb. It went off in the central Mazraa neighbourhood, close to the Baath offices and Russian embassy. 
 
 State and pro-regime TV showed pictures of dead bodies and destroyed cars. State media said at least 53 were killed and another 200 injured in the blast. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based activist group, said at least 42 had died, most of them civilians. 
 
 Surrounding roads are reported to have been closed off to traffic and firefighters and medical staff were soon at the scene. 
 
 Image caption Images from state media showed wounded Syrians reeling from the blast 
 
 Witnesses told AP news agency the car had exploded at a security checkpoint between the Russian embassy and the Baath Party central headquarters. 
 
 "It was huge. Everything in the shop turned upside down,'' one local resident said. He said three of his employees were injured by flying glass that killed a young girl who was walking by when the blast hit. 
 
 "I pulled her inside the shop but she was almost gone. We couldn't save her. She was hit in the stomach and head." 
 
 State media said the explosion had struck near a school and clinic and that schoolchildren were among the casualties. 
 
 It seems to have been targeted at the Baath party offices, but also affected residential areas, says the BBC's Lina Sinjab in Damascus. 
 
 Heavy fighting between government and rebel forces continued around the city, with the government carrying out air strikes in the suburbs. 
 
 Shortly after the car bomb, two mortars were fired at a military headquarters in Damascus, reports say. 
 
 And there were two other explosions in the city, also at security checkpoints, according to the SOHR. 
 
 The UK-based activist group is one of the most prominent organisations documenting and reporting incidents and casualties in the Syrian conflict. The SOHR says its reports are impartial, though its information cannot be independently verified. 
 
 Opposition 'softens' 
 
 Mr Lavrov said the Kremlin and the Arab League wanted to establish direct contact between the Syrian government and the opposition. 
 
 Speaking in Moscow, where he hosted league officials and several Arab foreign ministers, the Russian foreign minister said that sitting down at a negotiating table was the only way to end the conflict without irreparable damage to Syria. 
 
 "Neither side can allow itself to rely on a military solution to the conflict, because it is a road to nowhere, a road to mutual destruction of the people," he said. 
 
 Mr Lavrov and Arab League General Secretary Nabil Elaraby said their priority was to create a transitional government to navigate a way out of the violence. 
 
 No conditions for the negotiations have been set, they said. 
 
 The proposal initially received a cool reception from the Syrian National Coalition (SNC), with senior member Abdelbaset Sieda insisting Mr Assad and his allies "must go first". 
 
 "After that we can discuss with others in the regime who didn't share in the killing of our people," he said. 
 
 But the news agency Reuters says it has seen a draft SNC communique being discussed in Cairo which demonstrates an apparent softening in the group's stance. 
 
 The document reasserts the group's position that Mr Assad's apparatus cannot be part of any political solution in Syria, but omits previous demands that Mr Assad's regime must go even before any talks, Reuters says. 
 
 But that may still prove unacceptable in Damascus, says the BBC's James Reynolds in Istanbul. ||||| Twin car bombs struck intelligence and security buildings in the Syrian capital on Saturday, killing at least 27 people and wounding nearly 100, according to state media. 
 
 In this photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, Syrian security officers investigate a damaged building of the air intelligence forces, which was attacked by one of two explosions, in... (Associated Press) 
 
 In this photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, Syrian army soldiers and security officers inspect the blast area in front of a damaged building of the air intelligence forces, which was... (Associated Press) 
 
 State TV, citing the health minister, said the death toll could rise. Gruesome images of the scene were aired, with mangled and charred corpses, bloodstained streets and twisted steel. 
 
 "All our windows and doors are blown out," said Majed Seibiyah, 29, who lives in the area. "I was sleeping when I heard a sound like an earthquake. I didn't grasp what was happening until I hear screaming in the street." 
 
 The blasts were the latest in a string of mysterious, large-scale attacks targeting the Syrian regime's military and security installations. The previous blasts, all suicide bombings, killed dozens of people since December, even as the regime wages a bloody crackdown against the year-old uprising against President Bashar Assad. 
 
 The government has blamed the explosions on the "terrorists" that it claims are behind the revolt. The opposition has denied any role, saying they believe forces loyal to the government are behind the bombings to tarnish the uprising. 
 
 But top U.S. intelligence officials also have pointed to al-Qaida in Iraq as the likely culprit behind the previous bombings, raising the possibility its fighters are infiltrating across the border to take advantage of the turmoil. 
 
 Al-Qaida's leader called for Assad's ouster in February. 
 
 A suspected al-Qaida presence creates new obstacles for the U.S., its Western allies and Arab states trying to figure out a way to help push Assad from power, and may also rally Syrian religious minorities, fearful of Sunni radicalism, to get behind the regime. 
 
 Bassma Kodmani, a member of the opposition Syrian National Council, said she doubted armed groups trying to bring Assad down by force, such as the rebel Free Syrian Army, have the capacity to carry out such attacks on security institutions in the capital. 
 
 "I don't think any of the opposition forces or the free Syrian army has the capacity to do such an operation to target these buildings because they are fortresses," she said by telephone. "They are very well guarded. There is no way anyone can penetrate them without having strong support and complicity from inside the security apparatus." 
 
 According to SANA, preliminary information indicated two blasts were caused by car bombs that hit the aviation intelligence department and the criminal security department at 7:30 a.m local time. Shooting broke out soon after the blast and sent residents and others who had gathered in the area fleeing, an Associated Press reporter at the scene said. 
 
 A Syrian official also said there were reports of a third blast Saturday targeting a military bus at the Yarmouk refugee camp in Damascus, but there were no details. He asked that his name not be used because he was not authorized to speak publicly. 
 
 The Syrian government denies there is a popular will behind the uprising, saying foreign extremists and gangs are trying to destroy the country. But his opponents deny that and say an increasingly active rebel force has been driven to take up arms because the government used tanks, snipers and machine guns to crush peaceful protests. 
 
 The U.N. estimates that more that 8,000 people have been killed since the uprising against Assad began last March. 
 
 The last major suicide bombing in Syria happened on Feb. 10, when twin blasts struck security compounds in the government stronghold of Aleppo in northern Syria, killing 28 people. Damascus, another Assad stronghold, has seen three suicide previous bombings since December. 
 
 In recent weeks, Syrian forces have waged a series of heavy offensives against the main strongholds of the opposition _ Homs in central Syria, Idlib in the north and Daraa in the south. 
 
 The bloodshed fuels the country's sectarian tensions. The military's top leadership is stacked heavily with members of the minority Alawite sect, to which Assad and the ruling elite belong. 
 
 Sunnis are the majority in the country of 22 million and make up the backbone of the opposition. 
 
 Diplomatic efforts to solve the crisis have so far brought no result. But U.N. envoy Kofi Annan told the Security Council in a briefing Friday that he would return to Damascus even though his recent talks with Assad saw no progress in attempts to cobble together peace negotiations between the two sides. 
 
 After the confidential briefing via videolink, Annan told reporters in Geneva that he urged the council "to speak with one voice as we try to resolve the crisis in Syria." Russia and China have blocked U.N. action against Assad's regime. 
 
 "The first objective is for all of us to end the violence and human rights abuses and the killings and get unimpeded access for humanitarian access to the needy, and of course the all-important issue of political process that will lead to a democratic Syria," Annan said. 
 
 Both Assad and much of the opposition spurned Annan's appeal for talks. 
 
 ___ 
 
 Associated Press writer Albert Aji contributed to this story from Damascus, Syria.
– Two car bombs rocked Damascus this morning around 7:30 local time, killing civilians and security forces, report al-Jazeera and AP. State media reports 27 dead and more than 100 injured. One bomb hit the criminal security department and the other the aviation intelligence department. The usual blame game unfolded: The government said the explosions were the work of terrorists, but rebel groups said the bombs were the work of the government, done to discredit the opposition. The explosions followed renewed fighting around the capital yesterday, as violence returned to the Damascus suburbs for the first time since early February, according to the AP. The Syrian government had been reporting it was on the verge of crushing the rebels, but the new fighting shows its struggles to conduct offensives in more than one area at a time. "Every time the regime controls a specific area we witness clashes in new regions," said one activist. Syria's foreign minister, meanwhile, sent a letter to the UN Security Council yesterday saying the crackdown would continue.