Brahimi: 'Worsening crisis'

Brahimi is scheduled to meet the opposition National Coordination Committee for Democratic Change among other opposition groups on Friday.

On his arrival at Damascus airport on Thursday, Brahimi said the conflict in Syria was getting worse.

"We came to Syria to hold meetings with our Syrian brothers because there is a big crisis, and I think it is getting worse," Syria's official SAMA news agency quoted Brahimi as saying.

"I think everybody agrees the need to stop the bloodshed and to restore harmony, and we hope that we will succeed," he added.

Earlier this week, Brahimi told Arab League envoys in Cairo that he knew he faced "an extremely difficult task."

First visit

This is Brahimi's first trip to Syria in his new capacity, replacing Kofi Annan, who quit in August, frustrated that his efforts had done little to break the gridlock in the UN Security Council or end the civil war.

His visit comes as fighter jets and helicopter gunships were deployed again over Aleppo on Friday, according to the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The city has been the scene of intensive clashes over the past two months between the military and the Free Syrian Army.

A helicopter strike on Thursday killed at least 11 people at a crossroads in the Tariq al-Bab district, according to the Observatory.

The Observatory also reported government airstrikes on the rebel-held towns of Al-Bab and Marea near Aleppo city, while fierce battles raged around the military airport at Minnigh, also in Aleppo province.

Activists estimate that as many as 23,000 people have been killed since the uprising began in March 2011.

mkg, tj/jlw (AFP, Reuters, AP, dpa)