Troops Shell Areas on Edge of Syrian Capital Syrian troops shelled rebel strongholds on the edge of Damascus from multiple rocket launchers based on hilltops Tuesday, while new clashes erupted in an intensifying battle for control over Aleppo's international airport and nearby military bases in Syria's north, activists said. The thud of artillery and mortars reverberated across the capital from the fighting in the northeastern neighborhoods of Jobar and rebel-held areas south of Damascus. Activists said several people were wounded. Opposition fighters trying to topple Syrian President Bashar Assad have stepped up mortar attacks on Damascus in recent weeks, striking deeper than ever into the heart of the city. Rebel fighters tried in the past to establish bridgeheads in Damascus but were pushed back to the suburbs by regime forces. In northern Syria, rebels renewed a push to capture Aleppo's international airport and nearby air bases as part of their campaign to erode the regime's air supremacy in the 2-year-old conflict. The United Nations says the civil war has claimed more than 70,000 lives and forced some 4 million Syrians from their homes. A UNICEF report issued Tuesday warned that a whole generation of Syrian children risks being scarred for life because of the unrelenting violence, mass population displacement and damage to infrastructure and services. This citizen journalism image taken on, Sunday, March. 10, 2013 and provided by Aleppo Media Center AMC which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, shows Syrians standing next to dead bodies that have been pulled from the river near Aleppo's Bustan al-Qasr neighborhood, Syria. Activists said the dead bodies of at least 20 men were pulled from a river that runs between regime- and rebel-controlled parts of the northern city. (AP Photo/Aleppo Media Center AMC) Close "As millions of children inside Syria and across the region witness their past and their futures disappear amidst the rubble and destruction of this prolonged conflict, the risk of them becoming a lost generation grows every day," said UNICEF Executive Director Anthony Lake. The report said that in areas where the fighting is most intense, few people have access to fresh water. Also, one in five schools have been destroyed, damaged, or is being used to shelter displaced families. In Aleppo, the center of months of fighting, only 6 per cent of children are attending school, the report said. In a sign of worsening economic conditions, the value of the Syrian pound reached 101 pounds to the U.S. dollar Tuesday. Although late last year the pound briefly sank to 105 to the dollar, prompting central bank intervention, it had been holding at about 95 pounds to the dollar. At the start of the conflict, the dollar stood at 47 Syrian pounds. The economy has been suffering under the weight of sanctions from the U.S., European Union and the Arab League that include a ban on oil exports. Besides the economic effects, the civil war has left the nation's industry, infrastructure and many cities, including ancient Aleppo, in ruins. The rebels control large swathes of territory outside of Aleppo, but the battle for the city itself, Syria's main commercial hub, is locked in a stalemate. Rebels pushed into the city in July and captured several neighborhoods. It has been a major battleground in the civil war ever since. The army holds large parts of Aleppo and maintains control over the airport, the country's second largest. Crucially, Syria's air space is firmly controlled by the regime in Damascus, which uses its warplanes to bomb rebel strongholds. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said clashes erupted on Tuesday around the airport, and rebels also intensified their assault on the Nairab and Mannagh air bases near the strategic facility, which has not been handling fights for weeks because of the fighting.