Activists say government warplanes and artillery pound areas in and around Damascus

FILE - This file citizen journalism image taken on, Sunday, March. 10, 2013 and provided by Aleppo Media Center AMC which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, shows Syrians standing next to dead bodies that have been pulled from the river near Aleppo's Bustan al-Qasr neighborhood, Syria. More than 6,000 people were killed in the Syrian civil war in March alone, according to a leading activist group that reported it was the deadliest month yet in the 2-year-old conflict. (AP Photo/Aleppo Media Center AMC, File) (The Associated Press)

FILE - This Friday, March 1, 2013 file citizen journalism image provided by Aleppo Media Center AMC which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, shows a Syrian child, injured by heavy bombing from military warplanes, in the town of Hanano in Aleppo, Syria. More than 6,000 people were killed in the Syrian civil war in March alone, according to a leading activist group that reported it was the deadliest month yet in the 2-year-old conflict. (AP Photo/Aleppo Media Center AMC, File) (The Associated Press)

BEIRUT – Syrian activists are reporting heavy government shelling and air raids in Damascus and its suburbs.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says government troops have shelled the northern neighborhoods of Jobar, Barzeh and Qaboun of the capital. It also reported an air raid Tuesday on the Damascus suburb of Mleiha.

Maath al-Shami, an activist based in the suburb of eastern Ghouta, says there were several airstrikes in the area.

The Observatory also reported heavy shelling of rebel-held areas in the central city of Homs and the northern city of Aleppo, Syria's largest and former commercial center.

The U.N. says more than 70,000 people have been killed since Syria's conflict began in March 2011.