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Syrian rebels killed at least 11 people, including civilians, in an attack on a checkpoint west of the city of Homs on Saturday that official state media described as a massacre.
Most of those killed were Christians, activists and residents said. Some were from the National Defense Army, a militia which fights alongside President Bashar al-Assad’s soldiers, and others were civilians, they said.
Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, an al-Qaeda faction, has claimed wave of attacks in last 48 hours that caused more than 70 dead in Iraq, most of them in 11 car-bombs esploded in Baghdad in areas shiite majority.
Syrian rebels claim to have killed at least 40 Hezbollah militants and Iranian agents in Damascus over the weekend.
According to their reports, rebels belonging to the Free Syrian Army detonated a car packed with explosives next to a compound belonging to the government defense apparatus, where the pro-Assad fighters were gathered. Members of the Shabiha, the regime’s civilian-clad enforcement apparatus, were reportedly also at the compound when the blast occurred.
In this photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, the bodies of rebel fighters are seen on the ground, killed in an ambush by Syrian forces near the Damascus suburb of Adra, Aug. 7, 2013.
Syrian government forces killed more than 60 rebels Wednesday in an ambush near Damascus, a blow to opposition fighters confronting a regime offensive in the capital, activists said.
The state news agency SANA confirmed the ambush near the Damascus suburb of Adra at dawn, saying “dozens” were killed. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least 62 rebels died. It did not report any government casualties.
Rebels fighting to overthrow Syrian President Bashar al-Assad have captured a key air base in the northern province of Aleppo after a months-long battle, a monitoring group reported Tuesday.
“The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (jihadist group) and other opposition groups took total control at dawn today of Minnigh air base,” said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.