Syrian army launches all-out offensive for Damascus Diplomatic tensions were set to be fanned further when the Security Council rules on the status of 300 UN monitors whose mandate to oversee the implementation of Syria's tattered peace ends later on Friday. Moscow said it would back an unconditional 45-day extension submitted by Pakistan rather than Britain's proposal to add 30 days to their mandate one last time. State television trumpeted the news of the military's Damascus offensive. "Our brave army forces have completely cleansed the area of Midan in Damascus of the remaining mercenary terrorists and have re-established security," it said, using the regime term for rebels. Reporters taken on a regime-organised trip saw three bodies, empty streets, shuttered shops and buildings pockmarked with bullet holes. A security services source told AFP the military has launched a general offensive in Damascus. The assault comes after a Wednesday bombing that killed four senior members of the regime, including the national security chief, who died on Friday. General Hisham Ikhtiyar had been wounded along with Interior Minister Mohammed al-Shaar in the National Security headquarters bombing, which was claimed by the Free Syrian Army (FSA). Defence Minister General Daoud Rajha, President Bashar al-Assad's brother-in-law Assef Shawkat and General Hassan Turkmani, head of the regime's crisis cell on the uprising, were all killed in the explosion. A state funeral was held for the three in Damascus on Friday ahead of their burials in their native provinces, state television reported without airing any footage. After Wednesday's bombing, a security source warned that the regime would step up its operations against the rebels. "The army has so far exercised restraint in its operations, but after the attack, it has decided to use all the weapons in its possession to finish the terrorists off," the source said. State television broadcast footage it said was from Damascus showing weaponry reportedly captured from rebels, including material marked "Made in USA," as well as scenes of prisoners seated on the ground, their hands bound. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that regime forces also stormed the Jubar neighbourhood of Damascus. "Syrian regular forces, including trucks and cars packed with heavily armed men, stormed the district of Jubar," the Britain-based watchdog said. The Observatory also reported what it said was the fiercest fighting so far between troops and rebel fighters in Syria's second city Aleppo. "Violent clashes are taking place in the Salaheddin, Azimiyeh, Akramiyeh and Ard el-Sabbagh neighbourhoods between the regular army and the rebels," the watchdog said, reporting unspecified "casualties." The Observatory said that nationwide it had confirmed 49 dead as of 1300 GMT on Friday, including 41 civilians, seven of them children. It said 302 people were killed on Thursday, the deadliest day of the uprising so far. Clashes took place even on Syria's frontiers, activists and witnesses said. An AFP photographer reported that FSA fighters fought a raging battle with Syrian troops at the Bab al-Hawa border post with Turkey and that some 150 rebels controlled the crossing on Friday. On Thursday, Iraq's deputy interior minister Adnan al-Assadi told AFP that the FSA had seized control of all crossings along their common border. Despite the bloodshed, demonstrations were held in several cities, the Observatory reported. Most were small but the watchdog said troops had opened fire on one large protest in Aleppo. Damascus, meanwhile, dismissed comments by Moscow's envoy to Paris that Assad is ready to stand down. "The comments attributed to the Russian ambassador to Paris on the fact that President Assad would agree to relinquish power in a civilised manner are totally baseless," state television said. The denial came after Alexander Orlov told Radio France International (RFI) that Assad was ready to cede power but only in a "civilised manner." At the United Nations, permanent Security Council members Russia and China on Thursday vetoed resolutions on Syria for the third time in nine months. UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan, who had called on the council to impose "consequences" for the failure to carry out his peace plan for Syria, expressed disappointment. Washington condemned the "highly regrettable decision" to veto the UN resolution and said that it would now work outside the Security Council to confront Assad's regime. In Moscow, foreign ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich called Western criticism of its decision "absolutely unacceptable." However, Russia will delay its controversial shipment of three attack helicopters to Syria until security is restored there, the Interfax news agency reported on Friday, quoting an unidentified military source.