LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - "Helicopters are fiercely shelling the northern quarter of Barzeh with rockets and machine guns," an NBC News contact reported. "They're flying over my head. The shelling is the first of [its] kind ever witnessed in Damascus."

Syria's elite Fourth Division troops were besieging the northern neighborhood of Barzeh, one of three northern areas hit by helicopter fire. "The situation in Damascus is normal, but the security forces are pursuing the remnants of the terrorists in some streets," state television reported.

Significantly, the fourth division is run by Assad's 41-year-old younger brother Maher Assad who is widely seen as the connecting tissue maintaining the Assad family's four decades of Alawite minority rule.

His role has become even more important since Assad's defense and intelligence ministers, a top general and his powerful brother-in-law were killed by the bomb on last week. President Assad has not spoken in public since the bombing.

One Western diplomat has compared Assad to a doctor "abandoning the patient's limbs to save the organs."

Fighting continues in parts of Aleppo -- the country's main commercial and industrial hub -- and in Deir al-Zor on the Euprhates River, the largest city in the east.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says if the current pace of killing continues through the end of this month, it will be the deadliest month since the Syrian uprising erupted. It's reported that 1,933 civilians, 738 government troops and 81 rebels were killed in the first 21 days of July.
 
The United States says it is closely monitoring Syria's chemical weapons stockpile and is "actively consulting" Damascus's neighbors to stress concerns over the security of those weapons and Syria's responsibility to safeguard them.

"We believe Syria's chemical weapons stockpile remains under Syrian government control," White House spokesman Tommy Vietor said. "Given the escalation of violence in Syria and the regime's increasing attacks on their people, we remain very concerned about these weapons."

One Syrian military defector claims that Assad's forces were moving chemical weapons across the country for possible use against the opposition.

"In addition to monitoring their stockpiles, we are actively consulting with Syria's neighbors -- and our friends in the international community -- to underscore our common concern about the security of these weapons, and the Syrian government's obligation to secure them," Vietor said.

© 2012, Catholic Online. Distributed by NEWS CONSORTIUM.