A mortar attack on the Damascus Opera House killed two people on Sunday, state media reported, as regime forces pressed a campaign against rebels on the Syrian capital's outskirts.

"Two people were killed and five others wounded by a mortar round that hit the Damascus Opera House" near key government and military buildings on Umayyad Square, the official SANA news agency said.

The attack damaged the Opera House, which was inaugurated by President Bashar al-Assad in 2004.

Mortar fire also wounded three people in the Abbasids neighbourhood of northeast Damascus, SANA said, blaming the attacks on "terrorists" -- the regime term for those fighting to oust Assad.

On Saturday, mortar rounds struck near the Russian embassy, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitor.

Rebel fire on Damascus has wounded at least 22 people in recent days, as government forces step up a campaign to crush insurgents in its eastern suburbs, the Observatory said.

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