BEIRUT: Syrian warplanes attacked towns in the country’s north and east and killed at least five civilians in a strike on an olive oil press as fighting raged in the capital Damascus Tuesday, opposition activists said.
 
In Aleppo province in the north, rebels shot down a military helicopter, according to video footage posted on YouTube that showed what appeared to be a missile hitting the aircraft.
 
Security sources and activists have reported a small but growing number of heat-seeking anti-aircraft missiles entering Syria, weapons the rebels would need to stand any chance of overcoming Assad’s increasing reliance on air power.
 
The video could be one of the first clear indications that such weapons are in use. The Local Coordinating Committees opposition group said the rebel Free Syrian Army had downed the helicopter near the Sheikh Suleiman army base, 30 km northwest of the contested city of Aleppo.
 
“It is the first time that the rebels have shot down a helicopter with a surface-to-air missile,” said Rami Abdel-Rahman, the director of the Britain-based, pro-uprising Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. He said the gunship had been on a strafing run near the besieged northwestern base, the last garrison in government hands between Syria’s second city and the Turkish border.
 
The Observatory said the missile was part of a consignment newly received by the rebels with the potential to change the balance of military power in the conflict.
 
Little more than a week ago, the rebels seized tanks, armored vehicles, artillery cannons, 120-mm mortars and rocket launchers when they took the sprawling Base 46 military facility, about 12 kilometers west of Aleppo.
 
Rebels also seized a military post 15 kilometers southeast of Aleppo, in the village of Mintar, tightening the noose around the city, both the insurgents and the Observatory said.
 
The operation was carried out by the Islamist group Ahrar al-Sham, which fights alongside but is not part of the mainstream FSA, they said.
 
Seventy soldiers were killed or captured, and the rebels seized six 23-mm cannons, rocket batteries and other weapons and ammunition, they added.
 
It came a day after insurgents took control of a dam on the Euphrates, in an area which connects the Aleppo and Raqqa provinces.
 
According to the Observatory, more than 90 people were killed Tuesday, one day after an estimated 168 people lost their lives in violence throughout the country.
 
Rebels trying to make inroads into the capital battled government forces in the suburb of Kfar Souseh on the edge of the center of the capital, activists said.
 
Syrian state TV said two people were killed and four wounded in a “terrorist suicide car bomb” in Jdaidet Artouz, near Damascus. The Observatory said the explosion was caused by a car bomb next to a military police checkpoint.Near the Old City in Damascus, a car bomb killed one person and blew the legs off another man, according to opposition activist Samir al-Shami. He said it was unclear if the car, a white Toyota, was rigged by Assad loyalists or rebels.
 
In northern Idlib province, a government jet dropped barrel bombs – cylinders packed with explosives and gasoline – at the Abu Hilal olive oil press, 2 km west of Idlib city, activist Tareq Abdel-Haq said.
 
At least five people were killed and five wounded in the attack, according to the Observatory. Abdel-Haq placed the number much higher, citing locals saying that at least 20 had been killed and 50 wounded.
 
Activists said the victims were civilians waiting to press their olives for oil, but they added that opposition fighters had been in the area. It was unclear whether there were any rebel targets nearby.
 
Combat also took place in the Baba Amr district of Homs, an area that was overrun by government troops in February, as well as in Aleppo, Deir al-Zor, Deraa, Idlib province and Hama province, the Observatory said.
 
International Syria mediator Lakhdar Brahimi is due to brief the 15-member U.N. Security Council Thursday and the General Assembly Friday. There is diplomatic deadlock between Western powers, which support the opposition, and Assad’s supporters Russia and China, which have blocked Security Council action.
 
In New York, a key U.N. committee Tuesday passed resolutions condemning human rights abuses by Syria, Iran and North Korea. A larger number of countries than last year backed a resolution against Syria.
 
For his part, U.N. Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, Robert Serry, told the Security Council that around 450,000 are now believed to have fled Syria, with even more displaced inside the country. “Destruction, death and suffering have become part of daily life across Syria,” Serry said. “The humanitarian crisis is becoming more acute with the winter upon us and the number of those in need growing, potentially reaching 4 million inside Syria by the end of 2012.”