As Syrian forces retaliate against rebels in Damascus a day after a deadly bombing attack that killed three regime leaders, reports Thursday suggest President Bashar Assad has fled to the coastal city of Latakia.

Assad, who was noticeably absent after Wednesday's bombing, is directing the government response to his top lieutenants' deaths from the Mediterranean sea resort, Reuters reports, citing opposition sources and a Western diplomat.

"Our information is that he is at his palace in Latakia and that he may have been there for days," a senior opposition figure told Reuters. The whereabouts of his wife and their three young children were not known.

Thousands of Syrians streamed across the Syrian border into Lebanon, fleeing as fighting in the capital entered its fifth straight day, witnesses said. Residents near the Masnaa crossing point -- about 25 miles from Damascus -- said hundreds of private cars as well as taxis and buses were ferrying people across.

On Thursday, Russia and China vetoed a Western-backed United Nations resolution threatening sanctions against Syria. The resolution threatened non-military sanctions against Assad's government if he didn't withdraw troops and heavy weapons from populated areas within 10 days. It is tied to Chapter 7 of the U.N. Charter, which could eventually allow the use of force to end the conflict...

In Thursday's fighting in Damascus, government forces fired heavy machine guns and mortars in battles with rebels in a number of neighborhood in the capital, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Adding to the confusion, Syria's state-run TV warned citizens that gunmen were disguising themselves in military uniforms to carry out attacks...

Many residents were fleeing Damascus' Mezzeh neighborhood after troops surrounded it and posted snipers on rooftops while exchanging gunfire with opposition forces.

The Observatory, which relies on a network of activists inside Syria, said rebels damaged one helicopter and disabled three military vehicles. Rebels fired rocket-propelled grenades at a police station in the Jdeidet Artouz area, killing at least five officers, the group said. Activist claims could not be independently verified. The Syrian government bars most media from working independently in the country...

Syria's 16-month crisis began with protests inspired by the Arab Spring wave of revolutions, but it has evolved into a civil war, with rebels fighting to topple Assad.

Wednesday's rebel bomb attack on high-level crisis meeting struck the harshest blow yet at the heart of Assad's regime. The White House said the bombing showed Assad was "losing control" of Syria.

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Editor's Note: The question now just beyond everyone's lips is whether or not Assad will be desperate enough to unleash his massive chemical WMD arsenal on his own people...


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