Syrian government warplanes and artillery pounded Damascus and its suburbs Tuesday, April 2 as rebels in the northern city of Aleppo launched an operation that aims to free hundreds of political detainees from the city's central prison, activists said, according to AP.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said government forces on Tuesday shelled the northern Damascus neighborhoods of Jobar, Barzeh and Qaboun. It also reported an air raid on the suburb of Mleiha.

State-run TV said rebels fired a mortar shell on the Damascus suburb of Muqailabiyeh, killing four people, including two children. It added that troops killed scores of gunmen throughout the country.

The Observatory also reported heavy shelling of rebel-held areas in the central city of Homs and fighting in other regions such as Daraa in the south and Deir el-Zour to the east near the border with Iraq.

In Aleppo, rebels launched an attack dubbed "Freeing the Prisoners" that aims to eventually free detainees held in the city's central prison, the Aleppo Media Center activist group reported.