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 on Friday.
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 meanwhile told AFP that 11 rebel fighters injured in the clashes had been prevented by lebanese soldiers from crossing the mountainous border area to seek medical treatment. The source said it was the first time that lebanese troops had prevented injured Syrians from entering the country in that part of the border area.