On the outskirts of Damascus, regime forces shelled rebel strongholds from before dawn on Monday. Activists said more than 45 people including 36 civilians had been killed in the past 48 hours in the area, Al Jazeera reported.

Fighting also raged in the city of Aleppo. Several parts of the Salaheddin neighbourhood where rebels fled last week but has seen continued clashes, are still being bombarded by regime forces, the bombardment has not stopped since morning, according to UK-based  Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Syrian troops were also advancing on the southwestern rebel stronghold of Sukari in Aleppo, activists reported.

Meanwhile, in the eastern province of Deir Ezzor, opposition rebels reported they shot down a government warplane on Monday while it was bombarding the area.

An amateur video posted on YouTube by activists marked with a logo: “The revolutionary youth from the land of the Euphrates,” shows a fighter jet  being shot, after the sound of heavy bombardment being heard.  Another video on Yotube shows footage of the captured  pilot of the fighter jet, Colonel Mohammed Suleiman, who was taken captive by the rebels.

State new Agency SANA, however, reported that the plane crashed due to technical problems during a “regular training mission”  and said the pilot had ejected from the plane before it crashed.

If confirmed, it would be the first time that the rebels have succeeded in downing a Syrian plane 

In recent months the government has begun to use its air force to try to crush a 17-month-old uprising.

Meanwhile, the foreign ministers of the Gulf Cooperation Council countries and other Arab leaders met in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia on Sunday ahead of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) summit in Mecca on Tuesday.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will attend the summit, with the Syrian crisis expected to top the agenda, Iranian media said on Monday as Tehran and Riyadh have taken opposing stances on the syrian issue