This year, the Committee to Protect Journalists identified Syria as the third “most censored” country in the world, just behind North Korea.

More recently, the number of foreign reporters entering the country has increased, and news agencies like Reuters have found ways to establish what seems to be a full-time local presence. But as that presence has expanded, so have the risks. Several reporters moving in and out of Aleppo have recently described close calls as the Syrian military has shelled the city and, lately, attacked it with fighter jets.

Opposition leaders said Sunday that despite reports that their fighters were running low on arms and ammunition, they would continue to fight. Clashes erupted in several areas in and around Aleppo on Sunday, with attacks from fighter jets, as the war for the city edged into its third week.

There were also skirmishes and shelling in Damascus, activists said, where fighting has also intensified in the past few days.

And in a video released on Sunday, one of the rebel brigades in the capital said that Syrian troops had launched two attacks in an effort to free dozens of Iranians kidnapped by the brigade last week. Iran says the captives are pilgrims who were in Damascus to visit a Shiite shrine, but the rebels say their hostages (45 are left after three were killed by shelling) are Iranian agents.

In the video, the brigade’s commander said that the government would have to end its siege of rebel-controlled areas before the opposition would negotiate over the release of the captives.

The Arab League postponed a meeting on Syria scheduled for Sunday. An official told Reuters that it had to be rescheduled because Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister, Prince Saud al-Faisal, required surgery.