Eurasia Press & News
At least 40 people have been killed in clashes between Syrian regime forces and opposition fighters including Al-Qaeda’s local affiliate in the south of the country, a monitor said today.
The forces were killed yesterday, during fighting in Beit Tima, a majority-Druze region in southeastern Damascus province, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
There has been fighting between regime and rebel forces in the region for more than a year, but yesterday’s toll is the highest in a single day since violence began there. “At least 26 members of the (pro-regime) National Defence Forces and 14 fighters from (Al-Qaeda affiliate) Al-Nusra Front and Islamist rebel groups were killed,” according to the Observatory, which relies on a network of sources on the ground.
Syria’s Druze, a heterodox Muslim community, have largely stayed on the sidelines of the country’s bloody conflict and Beit Tima remains under regime control.
A Lebanese security source informed that 11 rebel fighters injured in the clashes had been prevented by Lebanese soldiers from crossing the mountainous border area to seek medical treatment.
