BEIRUT -- Syria's interior minister suffered a serious back injury in the bombing of his ministry last week and was brought to Beirut on Wednesday for treatment, Lebanese security officials said.
It was the first confirmation that Interior Minister Mohammed al-Shaar was wounded in the Dec. 12 bombing in the capital Damascus that killed several people and wounded more than 20. At the time, state-run Syrian TV said he was not hurt. The security officials asked that their names not be used because they were not authorized to speak publicly.
Also Wednesday, government forces were carrying out a broad offensive against rebels trying to topple the regime in the suburbs of Damascus, state media reported. The state-run SANA news agency said that troops have killed "scores of terrorists" -- the government term for the rebels.
The suburbs of the capital have been opposition strongholds since the uprising started. The rebels have recently made significant advances in in the area, capturing air bases and military installation and clashing with a pro-government Palestinian group for control of the Yarmouk refugee camp, located in the southern part of the capital.
Massive bombings like the one that struck the Interior Ministry have been a trademark of Islamic radicals fighting alongside the Syrian rebels, raising concerns about the extremists' role in the civil war.
Rebels have targeted the centre of Damascus with bomb attacks in the past, most dramatically in July when they detonated explosives inside a high-level crisis meeting in Damascus that killed four top regime officials, including Assad's brother-in-law and the defence minister.
Activists estimate more than 40,000 people have been killed since the conflict erupted in March 2011.
SANA said Wednesday's fighting was taking place in the capital's southern outskirts of Daraya, Harasta, Douma and Hajar Aswad, an area neighbouring the Palestinian refugee camp of Yarmouk.
On Tuesday, Syrian fighter jets bombed Yarmouk for the second time in a week, sending thousands fleeing from the camp. There were no reports on casualties from those strikes. Similar airstrikes on Sunday killed at least eight people in Yarmouk, activists said.
The rebel offensive in the camp, which began Friday, is aimed at driving out pro-government Palestinian gunmen of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command (PFLP-GC).
Most of the fighting on Wednesday was concentrated on surrounding districts outside the camp, said the Britain-based opposition activist group Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. It said the rebels took control of large parts of the camp after resistance from the PFLP-GC gunmen ceased in the morning.
Since the camp's creation in 1957, it has evolved into a densely populated residential district just 5 miles (8 kilometres) away from the centre of Damascus. Several generations of Palestinian refugees live there, some employed as doctors, engineers and civil servants and others as day labourers and street vendors. Many Syrians have also moved into the camp area over the years.
When the revolt against Assad's rule began, the half-million-strong Palestinian community in Syria stayed on the sidelines. But as the civil war deepened, most Palestinians backed the rebels, while some groups -- such as the PFLP-GC-- have been fighting alongside the troops. The group is led by Ahmed Jibril, Assad's longtime ally.
The fighting in the camp has forced an exodus of Palestinian refugees and Syrians who came to the camp in past weeks to escape violence elsewhere in the city, according to United Nations officials.
More than two-thirds of the roughly 150,000 Palestinian residents of Yarmouk have left the camp since Friday when the fighting flared up, according to the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees. They have either sought shelter in the outskirts of the camp, in other parts of Damascus or other Syrian cities, or headed to the Syrian-Lebanon border, said Sami Mshasha, an UNRWA spokesman.
Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas said in a statement Wednesday he had asked U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon to help in bringing the Palestinian refugees in Syrian to the Palestinian territories. This could include the West Bank, where Abbas governs, or the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.
The statement said there are 450,000 Palestinian refugees living in 10 camps in Syria. Abbas said Yarmouk, which is the biggest camp, "has been through a difficult situation due to the escalating conflict in Syria."
Any movement of refugees into the West Bank would need the consent of Israel.
Israel's Foreign Ministry had no comment.
The battle to bring down the Assad regime has forced some 3 million Syrians from their homes, according to a new estimate. Cold, wet winter weather is making life increasingly difficult for the displaced. Among those who left their homes are more than 500,000 who fled to neighbouring countries.
In Geneva, the United Nations refugee agency appealed to international donors for $1 billion to support Syrians in neighbouring countries and Egypt. Additionally, the U.N. is also appealing for more than $500 million dollars to help people inside Syria who have been driven from their homes during the civil war.
The new appeal is based on planning estimates that up to one million Syrian refugees will need help during the first half of 2013.
"Unless these funds come quickly, we will not be able to fully respond to the lifesaving needs of civilians who flee Syria every hour of the day - many in a truly desperate condition," said Panos Moumtzis, the agency's regional co-ordinator for Syrian refugees.
