Syrian forces bombarded three districts of Damascus with helicopter gunships on Sunday, July 22, witnesses said, clawing back territory from rebels a week after the fighters launched what they called a final battle for the capital.

Fighting also raged around the main intelligence headquarters in Syria's biggest city, Aleppo -- the country's main commercial and industrial hub - and in Deir al-Zor on the Euprhates river, the largest city in the east.

Rebels said they had captured a third border crossing with Turkey on Sunday, Bab al-Salam north of Aleppo, while Iraqi officials said Syrian forces had regained control of one of two border crossings seized by rebels on the frontier with Iraq, Reuters reported

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition group that monitors the violence, said 180 people, including 48 troops, had been killed across Syria on Saturday. Many of them died in the province of Homs, epicenter of the uprising.