BEIRUT – Syrian fighters said they had captured an air defense base with a cache of missiles outside Damascus, a rare advance on the city after a series of opposition setbacks in the capital. Rebel forces overran the base in the Eastern Gouta area, a few miles east of Damascus, Thursday, according to video posted on YouTube. Across the country about 180 people were killed in violence Thursday, including 48 government soldiers, the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. In New York, the UN Security Council condemned a cross-border mortar attack by Syrian forces that hit a Turkish village and demanded that such violations of international law stop immediately. The video of the assault on the airbase showed dozens of rebels dressed in army fatigues celebrating as black smoke rose from a military installation behind them. A middle-aged man holding a rifle says the attack was carried out by a rebel battalion from the town of Douma. It also showed rebels at a weapons cache which included what appeared to be part of a surface-to-air missile. It was not possible to independently verify the videos. Access to Syria for foreign journalists is restricted by the Syrian government. When rebels have captured army bases in other parts of the country, war planes have bombed the sites shortly afterwards. Although fighting often takes place in the Damascus suburbs, rebel forces have been unable to hold areas for long in the face of government artillery and air power. They have staged devastating bomb attacks on government and military offices in the heart of the city, however. ‘Weapons, not words' Thousands of people demonstrated across Syria Friday despite ongoing violence, calling for the arming of the rebel Free Syrian Army and condemning the international community's inaction, monitors reported. In Hama city, protests were held in several districts despite the deployment of security forces, who arrested 20 demonstrators, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. The Syrian Revolution 2011 Facebook page posted the slogan: “We want weapons, not words, to protect our children from the killing,” holding up portraits of UN chief Ban Ki-moon and Arab League head Nabil Al-Arabi. In the Kurdish town of Kubani in the northern province of Aleppo, hundreds of people, mostly children and teenagers, marched carrying Kurdish flags and the colors of the revolt in Syria, in amateur videos posted by activists on YouTube. In Kfar Nabal, a town in the northwest province of Idlib, demonstrators marched behind protest banners. – Agencies
