Syrian Fighting Reaches Capital

Syria moved armored vehicles into the capital Damascus as opposition fighters battled Syrian government forces in what residents described as the fiercest fighting yet inside the capital.

Activists said Monday the fighting had spread to several neighborhoods and in the center of the city. The spread of fighting came as U.N. peace mediator Kofi Annan was due to fly to Moscow to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin who has resisted Western calls to increase pressure on Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Monday accused the West of using ‘blackmail” to pressure Moscow into backing a stronger U.N. resolution against Syria. Lavrov said that tying the threat of sanctions to a measure that would extend the U.N. observer mission in Syria is a “dangerous approach.”

He also rejected suggestions that Russia is protecting the Syrian president. “Of course you’ve heard the mantra many times that Moscow holds the key to the Syrian solution,” Lavrov said. “When we ask them what they mean by that, they tell us, ‘you should convince Assad to resign on his own will.’ But this is unrealistic, I’ve already said that.