Syrian troops Tuesday stormed areas on the outskirts of the capital Damascus in a search for army defectors, activists based in Beirut told dpa.
The move by the Syrian army came after defectors a week ago attacked a base of the Syrian airforce intelligence.
Meanwhile, sound of heavy machine gun fire was heard across the area of Douma, near Damascus, Syrian activist Omar Ildibi said.
He added that Syrian security forces, loyal to President Bashar al-Assad, were seen arriving in buses to the area, a move Idlibi described as "a prelude to a storm" the area.
The attack came few hours after Syria's envoy to the United Nations, Bashar al-Jaafari lashed out at a draft resolution submitted by Germany to the General Assembly's human rights committee, which strongly condemned the eight-month-long crackdown on opposition protests which has so far killed 3,500 people.
"The draft is like declaring a political, media, and diplomatic war on Syria," al-Jaafari was quoted as saying.
The General Assembly's human rights committee is scheduled to vote on the document Tuesday.
The draft resolution strongly condemns "the continued grave human rights violations by the Syrian authorities, such as excessive use of force and the killing and persecution of protesters and human rights defenders."
Damascus has been facing mounting Arab and international pressure to end the violence in the country.