Syrian rebels have launched a new attack on east Damascus, seizing a strategically important road junction leading into the heart of the capital.

The attack came two days after an initial strike on the city was repelled by government forces.

The second wave of the assault started when a large explosion, thought to be a car bomb, was reported around dawn between the districts of Jobar and Qabun, in the northeast of the capital.

Fierce fighting broke out between the rebels and Syrian government forces and dark smoke was seen rising over the east of the city as the rebels shelled the nearby Abbasids and Tijara neighbourhoods.

Image: Smoke billows from the Jobar district in Damascus on Monday

A spokesman for the main rebel group behind the attack, Failaq al Rahman, said they had retaken all the positions they lost to the Syrian army on Monday.


He told Reuters they had "fire control over the Abassiyin garages" and had started storming them.

Syrian state media confirmed the rebels had re-entered parts of Damascus, but said the army was bombing their positions and was repelling the attack.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least 72 people were killed in the clashes on Sunday and Monday, including 38 government forces members and 34 rebels and jihadists.

Image: An opposition fighter fires a heavy machine gun in Jobar

Sunday's rebel attack came as a surprise to government forces and was the rebels first large scale operation inside the capital in over four years.

During the attack the rebels briefly made it as far as Abbasid Square - just over a mile from Damascus' Old City - for the first time in two years.

The rebels have suffered a steady succession of military defeats over the last year and a half at the hands of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his army, supported by Russian, Iranian and Shi'ite militia forces.

The fighting comes just two days before further UN peace talks in Geneva, aimed at ending the civil war.