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Syrian government troops have claimed significant advances in the disputed city of Aleppo.
State television said on Saturday that the army inflicted heavy losses in neighbourhoods it called “terrorist bases.”
The opposition wants the West to supply weapons and to set up safe havens inside Syria.
But assistance remains focused on non-lethal and humanitarian aid.
The Islamist al-Shabaab rebel group in Somalia have withdrawn from the port city of Kismayo - their last stronghold in the country - after an offensive by Kenyan and Somali government forces.
Al Shabaab said the withdrawal on Saturday was a “tactical retreat”.
The announcement came a day after an assault on the city by African Union troops, who had been trying to dislodge the insurgents from the key coastal city for days.
Kenyan troops which are part of the UN-backed Africa Union peacekeeping mission in Somalia (AMISOM) said Friday they had captured Somali strategic port city of Kismayo, the only remaining bastion of rebel al-Shabaab.
Kenya’s military spokesman Colonel Cyrus Oguna said the port city was taken over by Kenya Defence Forces and Somalia National Army (SNA) on Friday in a combined operation involving Navy, ground and air operations.
“I can confirm the port city of Kismayo was taken over by KDF and SNA forces this morning (Friday) and the details of how the operation was conducted will come later,” Oguna told Xinhua by telephone.
Rebels claim to have launched a “decisive attack” on Syria’s second city, Aleppo, as the UN refugee agency warned as many as 700,000 refugees could flee the country by year’s end.
“Tonight, Aleppo will be ours or we will be defeated,” Abu Furat, a rebel commander, told AFP as several thousand fighters went on the offensive in the key northern city that has been a battleground since July.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported fierce combat in the early evening in the districts of Izaa and Saif al-Dawla in the southwest, involving “hundreds of rebel fighters”.
A pair of powerful blasts targeting Syria’s military command headquarters rocked central Damascus early Wednesday.
It was the second consecutive day that bombs, apparently planted by rebels, hit the capital, highlighting insurgents’ ability to strike at the heart of the government of President Bashar Assad.
The attacks come as the United Nations General Assembly has been debating the crisis in Syria, though a deeply divided U.N. has failed in efforts to broker a cease-fire.