control of "large chunks" of cities, the UN's head of peacekeeping has
told reporters.
It is the first time a UN official has formally voiced that view.
His comments came as UN monitors in Syria were fired on as they tried
to reach the besieged town ofHaffa.
Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton accused Russia of
supplyingattack helicopters to the Syrian government.
She said the move would"escalate the conflict quite dramatically".
Russia maintains its arms shipments to Syria are unrelated to the
conflict there.BBC state departement correspondent
Hillary Clinton said the Russian move - sending helicopters to Syria -
wouldescalate the conflict in Syriadramatically. She said the US had
confronted Russia about its arms shipment toSyria but Moscow insisted
that the arms were not being used internally against people.
That, the secretary of state said, was patently untrue. State
department spokesperson Victoria Nuland declined to give details about
the source of Mrs Clinton's information, but she said the comments
were referring to new helicopters that were en route to Syria, and not
Syria's existing fleet.
The Pentagon has said it's not aware of specific reports of
helicopters beingdelivered but acknowledged that the Syrian government
was using helicopter gunships to attack people and that Russia was
re-supplying the Syrian army.
Mr Ladsous, UN under-secretary for peacekeeping operations, said the
attack on the UN team near Haffa was deliberate.
Asked whether he believedSyria was now in a civil war, Mr Ladsous told
a small group of reporters:"Yes, I think we can say that.
"Clearly what is happening is that the government of Syria lost some
large chunks of territory, several cities to the opposition, and wants
to retake control."
The UN and the US have warned of an alarming escalation in violence in
Haffa, amid reports of a build-up of government forces around the
town.
UN monitors first tried to reach Haffa on Monday but were denied access.
On Tuesday, government forces gave them permission to pass throughthe
last checkpoint before the town, but the monitorsjudged the situation
to be"unsafe" and turned back, aUN spokeswoman said.
As they were leaving, an angry crowd threw stones and metal bars at
the UN team before unknown assailants opened fire, the spokeswoman
said.
None of the observers was hurt.
The BBC's Barbara Plett, at the UN in New York, says UN officials have
been speaking this week not only about an intensification of
government military operations, including firing from helicopters, but
also about a dramatic increase in more sophisticated urban attacks by
the opposition.
Hillary Clinton: "We have confronted the Russians about stopping their
continued arms shipments to Syria"
Clashes
Earlier this month, activists said Syrian government forces killed 108
people in the region of Houla, in Homs province, and 78 people in the
village of Qubair, in Hama province.
Syria blames the violence on foreign-backed armed terrorist gangs.
The UN monitors are in Syria to observe the implementation of a peace
plan brokered by UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan. However, a ceasefire
whichwas supposed to come intoeffect on 12 April never took hold.
Mr Annan has called for another international conference on Syria, but
nodate or list of participants has yet been announced.
Activists said Syrian forces fired mortars at protesters in the
eastern city of Deir al-Zour, killing at least 10 people.
They also reported clashes in central Homs province.
These claims cannot be verified independently as Syria severely
restricts journalists' freedom of movement.