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Syrian Rebels Attack Checkpoint Near Capital Fighting Rages in Damascus Suburb After Suicide Bomb Attack by Rebels
(about 4 hours later)
BEIRUT — Syrian rebels assaulted a checkpoint in a pro-government suburb of Damascus on Saturday, setting off a suicide vehicle bomb that killed 16 soldiers, activists said. BEIRUT, Lebanon — Fighting raged between rebels and the Syrian military for control of a Damascus suburb on Saturday after a suicide bomber attack on a government checkpoint that an opposition monitoring group said killed at least 16 soldiers.
The state news agency SANA confirmed the blast in the suburb of Jaramana and said it had caused casualties, but did not give a number. At least 15 rebel fighters were killed in heavy clashes after the attack, as the government launched airstrikes and rebels peppered a government-controlled area with mortar rounds, according to the monitoring group, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which tracks the conflict from Britain through a network of contacts inside Syria, said that rebels led by the Nusra Front, the first Qaeda group to emerge in Syria, carried out the attack while trying to capture the checkpoint near the town of Mleiha adjoining Jaramana. Heavy fighting was reported after the explosion. While clashes erupt daily in the area between the ring of mostly rebel-held suburbs around the Syrian capital and the government-held core of the city, the death toll in Saturday’s battle was high, reflecting the rebels’ determination to try to advance toward downtown even as the government had reclaimed territory elsewhere.
Rebels control much of the countryside around Damascus but Jaramana, a Christian and Druse area, is mostly loyal to President Bashar al-Assad. Opposition fighters have previously targeted it with bombings and mortar rounds. The deployment of a suicide bomber to open a rebel offensive also reflects the increasing sway of extremist groups in the areas close to the capital. While two affiliates of Al Qaeda are active in Syria — the Nusra Front and the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria — they are most prominent in the country’s north and east, where they can easily transport arms and foreign fighters across the Turkish and Iraqi borders.
Mr. Assad has drawn support from Syria’s ethnic and religious minorities, including Christians and members of his Alawite sect. The rebels are dominated by Syria’s Sunni Muslim majority. Recently, however, their presence has increased in central and southern Syria, although they are still outnumbered by more mainstream rebel groups.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which supports the opposition, said Saturday’s battle began when a suicide bomber from the Nusra Front blew up the car he was driving near a government checkpoint between the suburbs of Jarmana and Al Mleiha.
The Observatory monitors the conflict from Britain through a network of contacts on the ground.
The Syrian state news agency, SANA, also reported the bombing, calling it a terrorist attack, though it did not report fatalities, saying that the blast wounded 15 people. The government often underreports losses among its forces.
The fighting came amid reports that nine Lebanese Shiites who had been kidnapped by Syrian rebels near the Turkish border and held for more than a year had been released and were on their way back to Lebanon.
The Lebanese interior minister, Marwan Charbel, said Saturday that the captives had been released and would be arriving at the international airport in Beirut within hours, The Associated Press reported.
But much about the possible release, and the wider deal that would make it possible, remained unclear.
News of the release came after trips by high-ranking Lebanese and Qatari officials to Turkey and Damascus.
Mr. Charbel said the nine captives had crossed into Turkey from Syria late on Friday. The Turkish government did not confirm that, and no images of the captives in Turkey were released publicly.