The Syrian army has captured a strategic southern suburb of Damascus, threatening rebel control of the wider area and cutting off a supply route for insurgents around the capital.
The town of Sbeineh is the third rebel neighbourhood to fall to government forces since the army, aided by Shia militias from Iraq, Iran and Lebanon, launched an offensive last month.
Syrian state television said the army had achieved "complete control" over Sbeineh, which it called "a hotbed for militants and a supply centre for weapons and ammunition".
President Bashar al-Assad’s army has been using a blockade tactic against the rebel-held suburbs that ring the capital.
The forces have slowly advanced as they try to drain the rebels - and the civilians that live among them - of food and supplies.
Sbeineh is comprised of residential buildings and a large industrial zone and is situated on the highway linking Damascus to the Jordanian border.
It is adjacent to Hajar al-Aswad, a southern district on the outskirts of the capital.
Assad forces also fought rebels in a small town 100km north of Damascus after video footage showed the opposition captured a huge weapons cache.
The looting of hundreds of weapons in the town of Mahin will aid rebels who are based there, halfway between the capital and Homs, two cities where the opposition has tried to take territory during the civil war.
State television said the army was engaging with "terrorists" in Mahin, its usual description for the rebels.
An anti-Assad monitoring group said that four rebel fighters had been killed.
The group, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said several brigades, including hard-line Islamists linked to al-Qaeda, were taking part in the fighting.
Opposition video footage from Tuesday showed rebels fighting in the desert and shots of militants standing in front of hundreds of green crates, some open with munitions showing.
An opposition activist in the video said the depot included missiles, artillery shells and mortars.
"These mortars are very long," he said, looking into an open green box. "Only the Assad brigades have these."
Another rebel in a video posted online on Thursday stood in front of a tank, saying it was one of three that opposition forces had taken from Assad's forces in Mahin.
Reuters could not confirm the authenticity of the videos nor when they were filmed.
Global chemical weapons watchdog inspectors using footage from sealed cameras have verified one of two remaining sites declared by Syria, the organization said on Thursday.
The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), which is charged with overseeing the destruction of Syria's chemical weapons stockpile, had already verified 21 out of 23 sites declared to the agency last month.
Two sites were considered too dangerous to reach.
"The additional site inspected is in the region of Aleppo and was one of the two sites that could not be visited earlier due to safety and security reasons," the OPCW said in a statement.
"As per the declaration by Syria, the site was confirmed as dismantled and long abandoned with the building showing extensive battle damage," it said.
Syria has proposed destroying its stockpile at a location outside the country because of ongoing fighting.
More than 100,000 people have been killed and some 2.2 million people have fled during the 2-1/2-year civil war.
