Clashes between rebel forces and PFLP-GC in Yarmouk camp

Up to 5,000 refugee have left Yarmouk camp, for Lebanon Clashes between Syrian rebels and a Palestinian group loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad have continued in Yarmouk camp, north of Damascus. The Free Syria Army (FSA) is involved in intense exchanges with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine General Command (PFLP-GC), in a region mostly inhabited by Palestinian refugees.
The camp is now a military zone with Free Syrian Army claiming control. As many as 5,000 of the 10,000 refugees at the camp have reportedly fled to Lebanon, since Sunday\'s air raid which killed at least eight people. On Tuesday, hundreds more were seen leaving on pickup trucks.
Government troops have been deployed outside the area, with rebels getting closer to the capital. PFLP-GC\'s intervention to help Palestinian refugees has temporarily halted FSA in their attempts to push into Damascus, which is 8 kilometres away.
n Tuesday, Residents in Yarmouk camp saw several mortar rounds land in the neighbourhood, with gunfire heard around the area. Locals said no group was in overall control, with the army well positioned to intervene. Activist Abu al-Sakan told AFP: \"We cannot say anyone has gained control yet. There are clashes and at any moment the army could advance.\"
 Earlier, Syrian rebels claimed to have taken full control of the camp, following days of violence in the area. The UN agency for Palestinian refugees [UNRWA] said in a statement that the Palestinian camp was \"said to be in a chaotic state; with ongoing fighting in the southern parts of the camp inching northwards, and reports coming in of families trying to escape on foot as cars and other forms of transportation are not able to move within the camp.\"
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has condemned the attack and expressed concern for the region. His spokesman, Martin Nesirky, said: \"The Secretary General is alarmed by the continued dramatic escalation of violence in Syria over the past several days, and the grave danger facing civilians in areas under fire.\"
Palestinians have historically considered Assad a benefactor and an ally, but that has increasingly changed. For many Yarmouk Palestinians, Sunday\'s attacks ended the last vestiges of the regime\'s claim to be a Palestinian champion and protector, The New York Times said.
\"I want to save my family\'s life,\" Yussef, a 40-year-old Palestinian refugee who hurried out of the camp with his family, told the Times. \"I will never, ever return.\"
Some residents fled to neighbouring areas while at least 5,000 fled to Lebanon since Friday, a Lebanese official told the Journal. At least 22 busloads of people entered Lebanon from Syria in the past day, and a \"majority were Palestinians fleeing Yarmouk,\" Lebanese Minister of Social Affairs Wael Abu Faour told the Times Monday.
The Yarmouk killings drew a rare condemnation from Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, whose government earlier refrained from criticising the Assad regime.
Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem told Ban in a phone call \"terrorists\" were behind Yarmouk\'s mayhem, state television and the official Syrian Arab News Agency reported. He also warned Palestinians not to offer \"shelter or assistance to terrorist groups,\" SANA reported.
The Assad regime refers to insurgents as terrorists. The SANA account said Syrian ground forces had refrained from entering Yarmouk but said nothing about the Syrian air and artillery attacks.