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A British defense study showed that about 100,000 foreign-backed militants, fragmented into 1,000 groups, are fighting in Syria against the government and people.
The extracts of the study by defense consultancy IHS Jane’s were published on Monday in The Daily Telegraph.
IHS Jane’s estimates that some 10,000 militants are fighting for groups affiliated with al-Qaeda such as al-Nusra Front and the rest fight for different militant groups.
Syrian rebels have taken control of the historic Christian town of Maalula, north of Damascus, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights watchdog and residents said today.
“Overnight, Syrian regime troops moved into the village, but rebel forces sent reinforcements and were able to take control of the entire town,” Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP.
A militant with rebel group Jabhat al-Nusra, an al-Qaeda affiliate, blew himself up in a car bomb attack near a checkpoint of the Syrian army at the entrance of the Christian town of Malula, west of Damascus, held by loyalist forces, the NGO National Observatory for Human Rights in Syria (ONDUS) said on Wednesday.
ONDUS said the militants now control of the posting after violent clashes.
French authorities declassified an intelligence report on Monday which claims that the Bashar al-Assad regime has staged at least three chemical attacks in Syria since April, including the August 21 attack.
The French government published a nine-page synopsis on Monday about Syria’s chemical weapons programme that sites at least three chemical attacks between April and August.
Officials in Yemen confirmed on Friday that a US-led drone strike in the southern province of al-Bayda, which is believed to be a stronghold of al-Qaeda in the region, took down a reported four terror militants, including a top al-Qaeda leader, Qayib al-Dhahab, from the Dhahad clan.
“Qayid al-Dhahab, chief of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) in al-Bayda province, was killed along with two of his bodyguards by missiles of a US drone this morning,” Xinhua quoted local security official as saying.