Instead of a quick half-hour trip home from her class at Damascus University, Lama Issa says she now must maneuver through security checkpoints, army tanks and blast walls – a two-hour journey that is often terrifying.

That's the new price of an uneasy security these days in the Syrian capital, the seat of power for President Bashar Assad.

Rebels have set their sights on the city of 1.7 million, and fighting on the outskirts is raising fears that Damascus soon could be facing the most brutal battle of the Syrian civil war.