BEIRUT - Syrian rebels have seized several weapons depots in the village of Khan Toman in Aleppo province after days of fierce clashes, a military source told AFP on Sunday.
"Opposition fighters gained control over weapons and ammunition stores in the village of Khan Toman in southern Aleppo province on Saturday after fierce fighting that went on for more than three days," the source said. He said the stores contained "a small number of ammunition boxes remaining after the main stock was transferred over a period of more than four months."
But activists said the opposition had taken control of "huge reserves," and video posted online showed fighters examining dozens of crates containing weapons and ammunition inside one warehouse.
"These are spoils from (Syrian President) Bashar al-Assad," the person filming the warehouse says, as fighters move from crate to crate, urging the camera to film the weapons.
"Rockets, film these rockets," they say. "These are 107-mm calibre, made in Iran," they add. "These are the rockets that Bashar al-Assad was hitting us with." The video says the capture of the depots was led by the Martyrs of Syria and the Hittin Brigades of the rebel Free Syrian Army. The capture of the arms depots was confirmed by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights watchdog, which also reported "heavy fighting between regime forces and rebel fighters in the area of Khan Toman" on Sunday.
In Damascus, regime forces were shelling the southern district of Al-Hajar al-Aswad, the group said, adding that fighting continued in the northern Barzeh neighbourhood, which residents began fleeing a day earlier under heavy fire.
The group also reported shelling of the border village of Qusayr in central Homs province. Fighting in the area has intensified in recent days, with villages across the border in Lebanon reporting the sound of explosions and heavy gunfire.
Meanwhile, a former agriculture minister, a businessman and an economist are leading candidates to be named Syria's first rebel prime minister at an opposition meeting in Turkey this week.
The appointment is aimed at showing that the opposition Syrian National Coalition can administer large swathes of captured territory where there is now a power vacuum.
The meeting in Istanbul on Monday and Tuesday follows a push by Britain and France to lift an EU embargo on supplying arms to the rebels fighting President Bashar al-Assad's regime.
However, the decision to name a prime minister and form an interim government is opposed by some opposition figures, who favour the creation of an executive body with limited powers to administer rebel-held territory.
The Coalition list includes virtual unknowns, as well as some prominent members of the opposition. Former agriculture minister Asaad Mustapha, economist Osama Kadi and former communications executive Ghassan Hitto are believed to be leading the pack.
The meeting is being held with the conflict - which has killed about 70,000 people and forced millions from their homes according to UN figures - now in its third year. "There is a real need in the liberated areas for better administration of daily life," Damascus-based activist Matar Ismail told AFP.
"There should be a civilian authority that acts as an alternative power to the Assad government."
Meanwhile, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's wife and his children have made a rare public appearance at a charity fund-raiser in Damascus for mothers of soldiers killed in the two-year conflict, his office said on Facebook Sunday.
The office said that Asma al-Assad, her three children as well as their cousins "took part Saturday in a charity event called... at the Damascus Opera House on the occasion of Mother's Day."
The event, dubbed 'Mothers Rally', was aimed at raising funds for the mothers of Syrian soldiers killed in fighting with rebels through the sale of crafts, the office said in a statement.
Assad's stylish British-born and British-educated wife is rarely seen in public, let alone with her three children - two sons and a daughter.
In June last year Russia dismissed as "rumours" speculation on the Internet she had taken refuge in the country amid the escalating violence in Syria.
In January Assad's mother, Anisa Makhluf, reportedly left the war-torn country for Dubai to join her daughter Bushra, according to Syrian expatriates and an activist in the United Arab Emirates.
Bushra's husband General Assef Shawkat, an army deputy chief of staff, was killed along with three other high-ranking Syrian officials in a July 18, 2012 bombing at the National Security headquarters in Damascus.
The following September, Syrian residents in the Gulf emirate said that Bushra had enrolled her five children at a private school in Dubai where she had moved.