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(CNN) -- Syrian rebels took their fight to the northern city of Aleppo on Wednesday, burning a police station and capturing pro-regime forces in an effort to wrest control from government forces, opposition and rebel groups said.
Rebels took control of a police station, according to footage streamed live by the Free Syrian Army on Wednesday. The opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said rebels burned a police station, though it wasn't clear if it was the same one.
The video shows rebels seizing tanks, looting the station, smashing pictures of President Bashar al-Assad and lining up captured members of the pro-regime Shabiha militia.
Another opposition group, the Local Coordination Committees of Syria, said MiG-21 warplanes were flying over the city and shelling several Aleppo neighborhoods. There was also gunfire, and civilians' cars were targeted, it said.
Villages near Aleppo appeared deserted Wednesday, and residents told CNN they are now traveling on back roads because the main highway is considered unsafe.
A Sunni cleric in the village of Injara, about six miles west of Aleppo, showed CNN journalists craters and gaping holes in at least six homes, the result of what he and residents said were rockets and artillery from a Syrian army base visible a couple of miles away.
"They hit us every night," Bukhro said.
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The British and German ambassadors to the United Nations said reports of the warplanes over Aleppo are especially concerning.
"The reports now of attacks by regime fighter jets in Aleppo mark yet a further dangerous escalation and underlines that there are no boundaries that the Assad regime will not cross in the misguided hope that it can resist the will of its people and hang on to power," British Ambassador Mark Lyall Grant told the Security Council on Wednesday.
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Aleppo is the commercial hub of Syria and an al-Assad stronghold, making it a key target for both sides.
"The Assad authorities are not only unleashing their heavy weapons and gunships against their own people," German Ambassador Peter Wittig said. "Two days ago they went even a step further and threatened the international community with the use of chemical and biological weapons of mass destruction."
Wittig was referencing comments by Syrian Foreign Ministry spokesman Jihad Makdissi that any weapons of mass destruction owned by the regime would never be used against the Syrian people, and are meant to be used only in the event of "external aggression."
Wittig called Makdissi's remark "a ruthless and an inhumane threat."
Rebel fighters load an anti-aircraft machine gun on an armored vehicle in Atareb, east of Syria's second-largest city, Aleppo, on Tuesday, July 31. Unrest spread across other volatile regions of the country as forces of President Bashar al-Assad's regime shelled targets and launched raids in and around Damascus, Homs, Daraa and Deir Ezzor.
Photos: Showdown in Syria
Syria is thought to have a biological warfare research and development program but is not known to have offensive biological warfare agents, according to Michael Eisenstadt, a senior fellow and director of the military and security studies program at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.
Photos: Massacre in Syria
At least 129 people, including 10 children, were killed in fresh violence across the country Wednesday, the LCC said. The dead included 22 in Aleppo and 27 in and around Damascus.
A member of the Free Syrian Army engages in an attack against the Syrian army in Al-Qusayr on January 27. The small town in western Syria has been under siege since early November.
Photos: Front lines of Free Syrian Army
Rights group Amnesty International said Wednesday the discovery of 19 bodies in a Damascus neighborhood this week mirrored a pattern documented elsewhere in Syria of both regime and opposition forces carrying out unlawful killings.
"Reports that government forces and armed opposition groups deliberately and unlawfully captured and killed opponents in Syria bolster the need for all sides to commit to abiding by international humanitarian law," the group said.
CNN's Ivan Watson, who is in northern Syria, said rebels have become better armed in the past few months. While they had only shotguns at one point, they now have rocket-propelled grenades and assault rifles, he said.
The increased firepower has helped the rebels successfully attack the regime's armored vehicles and forced some Syrian units to resupply by helicopter.
Watson said that in the village he was in, hundreds of rebels loaded up with ammunition this week and headed to fight in Aleppo.
Read more: Faces of the Free Syrian Army
On a visit to Bosnia-Herzegovina on Wednesday, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon compared the civil war in Syria to the situation during the breakup of Yugoslavia in the 1990s.
"The echoes are deafening. An accelerating slide to civil war. Growing sectarian strife. Villagers and children, butchered," he said in an address to lawmakers.
"The United Nations is doing all that we can," Ban said. "But action -- meaningful action -- will take the concerted efforts of the international community. Without unity, there will be more bloodshed. More deadlock means more dead."
Video: Fighting breaks out at Syria-Turkey border
Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair said the international community must make clear to al-Assad that it's a matter of when, not if, he must go. But in demanding al-Assad's ouster, Blair said, world powers must be careful about what comes next.
"Because the aftermath is very uncertain, what is it that we really learn, whether from Afghanistan or Iraq or anywhere else, when you lift the lid off these highly repressive regimes, out comes all this pouring of tension, religious and tribal and ethnic difficulty," Blair said on CNN's "Piers Morgan Tonight."
"So if we can manage a process of change that allows us then to manage the aftermath sensibly, I think obviously that would be in everyone's interest," Blair said. "That's easy to say, hard to do, but I think that should be the rubric of our approach. Make it clear it is inevitable -- he is going to go -- but really focus on managing that aftermath."
Meanwhile, half of the U.N. observers have left Syria as their mission begins what is set to be its final 30-day mandate, the U.N.'s chief peacekeeper, Herve Ladsous, said Wednesday in Damascus.
As a result, "the mission operates on a reduced basis, reduced in numbers, reduced in team sites in the provinces and does what it can," Ladsous said.
About 150 observers remain in Syria.
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Turkey's customs and trade minister earlier announced temporary restrictions on traffic at three border crossings with Syria -- Cilvegozu, Oncupinar and Karkamis -- because of security concerns.
Hayati Yazici said opposition forces had taken control of the border crossings, which led to damage and looting. The new restrictions bar commercial traffic from entering or leaving Syria, he said, though Syrian citizens will still be allowed to cross into Turkey.
Thousands of Syrians have fled to Turkey in recent months to escape the violence, though they generally cross through the border fence, and not the border gates.
In what may be a blow to the regime, the opposition Syrian National Council said Wednesday that two senior Syrian diplomats were the latest to defect.
One is the Syrian ambassador to the United Arab Emirates, Abdullatif Al Dabbagh, SNC spokesman George Sabra said.
The second is Al Dabbagh's wife, who is also the Syrian envoy to Cyprus, Lamia Al Harriri. She defected to Qatar, SNC member Najy Tayyarah told CNN. She is also the niece of Syrian Vice President Farouq Al Sharea.
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The Syrian crisis started in March 2011, when a fierce government crackdown on protesters morphed into a nationwide uprising against the regime.
The LCC says more than 16,000 people have been killed in the conflict. The U.N. secretary-general said this week that almost 17,000 people have died.
Read more: Amid violence, Syrians race to borders
CNN's Yousef Rafayah, Joe Sterling, Brian Walker, Yesim Comert, Richard Roth and Ivan Watson contributed to this report.
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Syrian boys run near a building hit by bullets and fire in Atareb.
A member of the Free Syrian Army fires at forces loyal to President Bashar Al-Assad in a district of Aleppo called Salah Edinne on Tuesday.
A member of the Free Syrian Army carries an injured civilian to safety in Aleppo's district of Salah Edinne on Tuesday.
Members of the Free Syrian Army learn that a tank belonging to forces loyal to President Bashar Al-Assad is heading to the area.
A Syrian boy carries bags of bread as people wait outside a bakery near Syria's second-largest city, Aleppo.
A photo released by Syrian Arab News Agency depicts damaged buildings in Homs on Monday, July 30.
A Free Syrian Army fighter takes position Sunday, July 29, in Aleppo as people flee shelling. Intense clashes have been under way for more than a week between the regime and rebels in Aleppo, Syria's commercial and cultural center.
Parts of Syria's largest city saw the fiercest clashes yet in the country's 16-month crisis on Saturday, July 28. About 200,000 people have fled fighting in Aleppo and surrounding areas in the past two days, a U.N. official says.
Fighting leaves vehicles damaged Saturday in the southwestern city of Daraa.
Syrians carry the body of a man allegedly killed in the bombardment of Sukari, southwest of Aleppo, by Syrian regime forces on July 27.
Destruction appears widespread in Homs on Friday, July 27, in a handout photo from the Syrian opposition Shaam News Network.
A Syrian opposition fighter takes aim during clashes with forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad in Aleppo on Wednesday, July 25.
Family and friends mourn over the body of Usame Mircan, who they say was killed by a Syrian government sniper in Aleppo on Wednesday.
Usame Mircan's mother grieves after he was killed during fighting in Aleppo.
The bodies of men killed during clashes between Syrian rebel fighters and goverment forces lie on the Aleppo street on Thursday, July 26.
Fighters from the Syrian opposition rest at a former primary school in Aleppo on Wednesday.
Residents take cover as fighters from the Syrian opposition clash with forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad in Aleppo on Wednesday.
Syrian rebels guard a checkpoint in Aleppo on Wednesday.
A damaged portrait of President Bashar al-Assad sits among piles of debris at a checkpoint manned by Syrian rebels in Aleppo on Wednesday.
Syrian rebels drive through Selehattin near Aleppo during clashes with government forces on Monday, July 23.
A Syrian rebel runs through the streets of Selehattin during an attack on a municipal building. The rebel Free Syrian Army says it is attempting to "liberate" several districts of Aleppo.
Syrian rebels work to find snipers during clashes Monday between the opposition and government forces in Selehattin.
Syrian rebels make their way down a street Monday in Selehattin near Aleppo. If they gain control of Aleppo, it would mark a pivotal point in the Syrian crisis.
Syrian rebels take cover behind sandbags during fighting Monday at the entrance to the city of Selehattin.
On Sunday, July 22, a Syrian refugee looks out from a bus as he arrives at a refugee camp in Turkey opposite the Syrian commercial crossing point Bab al-Hawa.
Syrian refugees flee from a refugee camp nicknamed "Container City" on the Turkish-Syrian border in Kilis province, southern Turkey, on Sunday.
Smoke from artillery shelling rises above Jbatha Al-khashab.
An armed Syrian rebel wearing the jersey of FC Barcelona rests with comrades near the northern city of Aleppo on Sunday. The rebel Free Syrian Army announced the start of the battle to "liberate" Aleppo, Syria's commercial hub and a traditional bastion of President Bashar al-Assad's regime.
In this photo released by the Shaam News Network, a truck burns after shelling in the Erbeen suburb of Damascus on Saturday, July 21.
Refugees fleeing the violence in Syria arrive by bus in Baghdad, Iraq, on Saturday.
Turkish soldiers stand guard at the Cilvegozu border gate in Reyhanly that connects to Syria's Bab al-Hawa post. An estimated 120,000 people have fled Syria to Turkey, Iraq, Lebanon and Jordan.
Burned-out trucks at the Bab al-Hawa Syrian border post with Turkey on Friday, July 20. Syrian rebels seized control of the post after a fierce battle with Syrian troops, an AFP photographer at the scene reported.
Syrian soldiers celebrate in the al-Midan area in Damascus on Friday. Syrian regime forces routed rebel fighters from the Damascus neighbourhood of Midan, Syrian state television reported, saying troops had "cleaned" the district of "terrorists."
Journalists are shown a dead body on a government tour of the al-Midan area in Damascus on Friday.
Members of Syria security forces rest in the al-Midan area in Damascus on Friday.
Syrian army soldiers hang their national flag in a partially destroyed neighborhood in the al-Midan area in Damascus.
Smoke hangs in the air in a partially destroyed neighborhood in the al-Midan area in Damascus.
Members of Syria security forces pose for photographers in the al-Midan area in Damascus after driving out the rebel fighters.
Syrian residents take goods from a truck that rebels captured at the Bab al-Hawa border crossing with Turkey on Friday.
A picture released by the official Syrian Arab News Agency on July 19 shows Syrian General Fahd al-Freij meeting with President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus after his swearing-in ceremony as defense minister.
A man holds up a picture of President Bashar al-Assad at a former police station in Atareb after clashes between Syrian soldiers and Free Syrain Army near Aleppo on Thursday, July 19. Rebels seized control of border crossings with Iraq on Thursday, dealing a new blow to al-Assad, as China and Russia dismayed the West by blocking U.N. action against his regime.
People walk along the street in Atareb amidst damage caused by clashed between Syrian soldiers and the Free Syrian Army.
A Syrian man checks the former police station of Syrian regime after a clash at Atareb on Thursday.
Smoke ascends from from alleged shelling of the Syrian village of Jebata al-Khashab as seen from the hill village of Buqaata in the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights on Thursday.
The death toll in Syria on July 12 reached 287, making it the bloodiest day in Syria since the uprising began. As it has done consistently, Syrian state television blamed "armed terrorist groups" for the killings.
A Syrian woman sits with her grandson outside a damaged building after attacks in the Syrian village of Treimsa on July 13, 2012. More than 200 people were massacred in the town, according to activists.
A Syrian demonstrator holds an opposition flag during a protest in Damascus on July 2, 2012. There have been increasing reports of violence in the Syrian capital.
Syria's President Bashar al-Assad waves as he arrives for a speech to Syria's parliament in Damascus on June 3, 2012. The embattled president denied that government forces were behind the "outrageous" massacre in Houla.
People gather at a mass burial on May 26, 2012 for victims reportedly killed during an artillery barrage from Syrian forces in Houla. The attack left at least 108 people dead, including nearly 50 children, according to the United Nations.
Members of the Free Syrian Army return to Qusayr on May 12, 2012 after an attack on Syrian regime forces in the village of Nizareer, near the Lebanese border in Homs.
A U.N. observer speaks with Syrian rebels and civilians in the village of Azzara on May 4, 2012, days before the country's parlianemtary polls were held against a backdrop of unrest.
Thousands of Syrians wave their national flag and hold portraits of President Bashar al-Assad and Lebanon's Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah, right, during a rally to show support for their leader on March 29, 2012 in Damascus.
Syrian rebel fighters man a checkpoint leading into the town of Taftanaz in the rebel stronghold province of Idlib on March 20, 2012.
A Free Syrian Army rebel mounts his steed in the Al-Shatouria village near the Turkish border in northwestern Syria on March 16, 2012, a year after the uprising began. The Free Syrian Army is an armed opposition group made up largely of military defectors.
Syrian refugees walk across a field before crossing into Turkey on March 14, 2012. International mediator Kofi Annan called for an immediate halt to the killing of civilians in Syria as he arrived in Turkey for talks on the crisis.
A day after the twin suicide bombings, Syrian mourners pray over the coffins of the 44 people killed during a mass funeral in Damascus.
A Syrian man who was wounded in a suicide attack rests at a hospital in Damascus on December 23, 2011. Suicide bombers hit two security service bases in the Syrian capital, killing dozens of people.
Arab foreign ministers attend an emergency meeting at the Arab League headquarters in Cairo on October 16, 2011, to discuss the crisis in Syria.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton speaks to the media in Washington on August 18, 2011. Clinton said U.S. sanctions on Syrian oil "strike at the heart of the Syrian regime."
Syrian youths wave national flags while army troops drive out of Daraa on May 5, 2011. During a week-long military lockdown of the town, dozens of people were reportedly killed in what activists described as "indiscriminate" shelling on the city.
Syrians in Damascus protest in the street on March 25, 2011, after clashes with government forces in Daraa left several dead.
Supporters of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad rally on April 1 in Istanbul, Turkey, as delegates from dozens of countries gather to push for ways to end the deadly violence in Syria. The United Nations estimates more than 10,000 people have been killed since the beginning of the crisis in March 2011. The conflict is now being labeled a civil war by the International Committee of the Red Cross.
Syrians surround a U.N observer vehicle after placing the bodies of a girl and man on the car in Houla on Saturday, May 26, 2012. The photo is from the opposition Shaam News Network. Forty-nine children were among the 108 slaughtered in Houla on Friday, May 25, U.N. monitors say. The massacre in Houla, a suburb of the anti-government bastion of Homs, has reignited international fury against Bashar al-Assad's regime.
The body of a slain Syrian child lies next to other shrouded bodies at a hospital mortuary in Houla on Saturday in another photo from the opposition Shaam News Network. Al-Assad's regime insists it is not behind the massacre and blames terrorist groups. Syria has attributed violence on "armed terrorist groups" throughout the 14-month-old uprising.
Bodies of children lie in a Houla hospital morgue before their burial Saturday in another photo from Shaam News Network. Images from the town show a room crammed with mangled and bloody bodies of children -- some with their skulls torn open.
U.N. observers visit a hospital morgue in Houla on Saturday before the burial of massacre victims. Opposition activists and residents blame al-Assad's regime for the bloodbath.
A Houla resident shows a body to a U.N. observer at a mosque in the central Syrian town. Some U.N. Security Council members condemned the attacks "that involved a series of government artillery and tank shellings on a residential neighborhood" as well as killings of civilians by close-range gunshots.
Syrians gather at a mass burial Saturday in Houla. "Those responsible for these brutal crimes must be held accountable," Kofi Annan, the U.N.-Arab League special envoy, said in a statement.
Syrians burn a portrait of President Bashar al-Assad in Al-Qusayr. The Syrian regime has faced international pressure to stop its crackdown on protesters. Some have asked for al-Assad to step down.
Free Syrian Army rebels ride a motorcycle through Al-Qusayr on January 28. A Corbis Images photographer spent several days in the town. His images offer a rare look at the combat in Syria, where access is limited.
The Free Syrian Army is made up of former Syrian military soldiers who left their posts and sided with the protesters. The group has declared war on the regime of President al-Assad and taken up posts throughout the country.
Opposition fighters fire on Syrian soldiers on January 24. Syria has seen a sharp increase in violence in recent weeks, with hundreds killed in clashes between government forces, rebels and protesters.
A member of the Free Syrian Army holds an AK-47 and prayer beads in the streets of Al-Qusayr.
The rebels drive through a neighborhood in Al-Qusayr. The town is close to the flashpoint city of Homs and has about 44,000 residents.
More than 65 people are believed to have lost their lives in Al-Qusayr. Opposition groups say food and electricity are in short supply and communication lines have been interrupted.
A member of the Free Syrian Army receives first aid after he was wounded by a rocket-propelled grenade on January 25. More than 5,000 people have died in Syria since the start of the government crackdown in March, according to the United Nations.
Free Syrian Army fighters stand guard at night in Al- Qusayr. The humanitarian crisis in Syria continues to worsen as armed rebels and government forces battle for control of towns and cities across the country.
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