Syria crisis: battles in Damascus and Aleppo Syrian refugees in Kilis at the border with Syria after clashing with police during a demonstration over their living conditions on July 22, 2012. Photograph: Adem Altan/AFP/Getty Images 9.56am: Diplomatic roundup: The European Union has agreed to strengthen its arms embargo and increase sanctions again against the Assad regime, Reuters reports. Speaking after a meeting of foreign minister EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said: These sanctions are important because they will allow ships to be examined to see what cargo they're carrying, and that will prevent, I hope, any arms reaching Syria. Israeli has confirmed that its leaders have discussed with US officials how to manage a Syrian government collapse, AP reports. An official said: "You can presume that these sorts of issues came up with American officials when they visited recently in Israel." UN blogger Nabil Abi Saab, claims the Arab League's decision to change Kofi Annan's mission in Syria (see 9.10am) represents the end of the joint envoy's mission. 9.47am: Rebel troops have been filmed capturing a government tank in the Shakour district of Aleppo. The clip was highlighted by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The activist group the Local Coordination Committees in Syria reported renewed government shelling of the area today. 9.10am: Qatar's prime minister Jassim bin Jaber al-Thani, said Arab nations are willing to offer Bashar al-Assad safe passage if he steps down. Speaking to al-Jazeera after a meeting of the Arab League in Doha, he said: "We ask Bashar al-Assad to step down and safe haven for him." He also said the Arab League agreed to $100m for Syrian refugees and that it wanted to change Kofi Annan's mission to focus on political transition. The meeting also called on the Syrian opposition and the Free Syrian Army to form a transitional government to ensure a smooth transition of power, according to Bloomberg, citing remarks by Sheikh Sabah al-Khaled al-Sabah, Kuwait's deputy prime minister. 8.46am: More international journalists have made their way into Syria to report on the escalating conflict. Sky's Stuart Ramsay confirms that the Free Syrian Army has taken control of Azzaz close to the Turkish border. What a battle this has been. It ended a couple of days ago but the centre of town is still smoking. The streets are littered with the debris of war. The BBC's Paul Wood is in a rebel-held town close to Damascus. The town is under bombardment again. People are determined; they have astonishingly high morale. But they have Kalashnikovs while the regime has the heavy weapons. That much has not changed since last week. Channel 4's Alex Thomson is on a government-approved stint in Damascus. He describeswh possible interpretations of clashes around a hospital in the capital: First - it was the rebels assaulting a well-known landmark, clearly identified as the biggest military hospital in the capital of Syria. Second - the Syrian government had been using this hospital as a vantage and firing point, hence those machine gun nests on the roof, thus turning a hospital into a legitimate target for the rebels. Third - I suppose it's not impossible that the whole thing was somehow staged to make us believe that the hospital was in fact under attack. Thought the incoming rounds and the sound of helicopter gunships to strafe the area certainly make this look far-fetched. 8.39am: Syrian state TV has broadcast images of the bodies of what it claimed were terrorists from Egypt and Jordan, who were killed during a weekend offensive against the rebel stronghold of Qaboun in north-west Damascus. The state news agency Sana has published graphic images of the bodies and identity cards of those killed. It said they were killed by Syrian troops when they were "clearing" Qaboun. 8.24am: (all times BST) Welcome to Middle East Live. Syrian troops have driven rebel fighters out of two districts of Damascus, retaking Mezzeh and Barzeh, Reuters reports. In Barzeh, members of the Syrian army's Fourth Division under the command of President Bashar al-Assad's brother executed several young men during an operation to regain control of the northern Damascus district, a witness and activists said. Free Syrian Army fighters battled government troops near the main intelligence base in Syria's second city of Aleppo. The outbreak of violence in Aleppo is arguably more significant than last week's assassinations, says Robert Fisk in the Independent. While the drama of last week's assault on Bashar al-Assad's regime in Damascus stunned the Arab world, the sudden outbreak of violence in Aleppo this weekend was in one way far more important. For Aleppo is the richest city in Syria - infinitely more so than Damascus - and if the revolution has now touched this centre of wealth, then the tacit agreement between the Alawite-controlled government and the Sunni middle classes must truly be cracking. Every grave violation of children in conflict, as defined by the UN, has been committed by one side or the other to this conflict, according to a new report by War Child. The report says: Neither side in this conflict has distinguished itself by protecting children in the areas they control. The Assad regime and the militias it sponsors have shot, detained, tortured and sexually abused children throughout the 16 months since the uprising began. But opposition forces also stand charged with including children in their ranks, and failing to properly protect children when engaging in hostilities in civilian areas. The Obama administration is increasing aid to the rebels and redoubling efforts to rally a coalition to forcibly bring down the government of President Bashar al-Assad, American officials have told the New York Times. It quoted one unnamed official as saying: "You'll notice in the last couple of months, the opposition has been strengthened. Now we're ready to accelerate that. Israel's prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, warned that his country would "have to act" if the Syrian regime collapsed and there was a risk its chemical weapons could fall into the hands of militant groups. In an interview on Fox News, Netanyahu said: "We certainly don't want to be exposed to chemical weapons falling into the hands of Hezbollah or some other terror groups. ... It's a great threat. There a five reasons why the Assad regime will not try to set up an Alawite state in the mountains of the north-west, as some have suggested, argues Syria-watcher Joshua Landis. The Alawites have tried to get out of the mountains and into the cities since the end of the Ottoman era. The Assads planned to solve the sectarian problem in Syria by integrating the Alawites into Syria. Assad has done nothing to lay the groundwork for an Alawite state. No country would recognize the Alawite state. An Alawite state is indefensible.