US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has dismissed a Russian proposal for a new UN Security Council resolution on Syria as pointless “without teeth”.
`They think we really want peace!`
Russia says it wants Security Council approval for a peace plan agreed in June in Geneva that called for a ceasefire and political transition.
But Mrs Clinton said a resolution without consequences would be ignored by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
Activist groups in Syria say more than 160 people died in the latest fighting.
Government air attacks are said to have killed many in the northern city of Aleppo, where a water supply pipe was also hit.
Meanwhile, state TV has shown government troops overrunning rebel-held areas in the south of the capital Damascus.
It also showed them being welcomed by some of the residents, who chanted in support of the army and the regime.
But the BBC’s Jim Muir, who is in neighbouring Lebanon, says the fighting in Damascus and its suburbs has been going on for nearly two months now, with rebels reappearing after government forces move on.
He adds that the same holds for Aleppo, where even the heavy use of air strikes as well as artillery bombardments have failed to dislodge the rebel fighters.
