The Dubai-based airline Emirates said it had suspended flights to and from Damascus indefinitely due to fighting between rebels and troops of President Bashar al-Assad.

The Egyptian official, who asked not to be named, said EgyptAir would meet Egyptian officials in the next few hours to discuss halting all flights between Egypt and Syria.

"EgyptAir received a note from its office in Damascus requesting the cancellation of Friday flights until conditions in the streets leading to Damascus airport improve," the official said.

"The current deteriorating conditions there prevented around 50 percent of the passengers on the Thursday flight from Damascus to Cairo from coming to the airport," he added.

EgyptAir operates daily flights to Damascus and five flights a week to the northern city of Aleppo.

Around 40,000 Syrians have been killed since an anti-Assad uprising began in March 2011.

(Writing by Yasmine Saleh and Edmund Blair; Editing by Alistair Lyon)

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