Last week saw top U.S. military and intelligence officials openly worrying that the momentum in the Syrian conflict had shifted in favor of the Bashar al-Assad regime. Violence this weekend seemed to grimly confirm that the regime was consolidating gains it had made in recent months, during which support from the Iran-backed terror group Hezbollah had allowed it to retake a series of strategic cities.

Scores of rebel fighters were killed Sunday near Damascus:

Syrian activists say government troops have killed at least 75 rebels over 24 hours in battles for control of the capital, Damascus. The death toll reported by the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights on Monday included 49 rebels killed in an ambush in Damascus’ northeastern suburb of Adra early Sunday. The group says an elite unit loyal to President Bashar Assad ambushed the rebels as they were trying to push into the city.

Meanwhile reports emerged that the Syrian military used chemical weapons against Palestinians in a Damascus refugee camp over the weekend. Opposition officials said that 22 people died in the attack on the camp, which was also attacked last December, during a campaign that saw the Syrian military heavily use aerial bombardment to target the opposition.

The Syrian military has long leveraged its air assets to battle against the rebels. Observers have emphasized that, to be effective, Western lethal assistance to the opposition would have to be provided with an eye on degrading those assets.

[Photo: FreedomHouse / Flickr]