Rebels kill 7 soldiers after mass casualties: Watchdog

Beirut (Lebanon), Feb 8 (AFP) Islamist Al-Nusra Front rebels today killed seven Syrian soldiers at a checkpoint in the northern city of Safireh after losing more than 100 men in the area over the past 72 hours, a watchdog said. The checkpoint was guarding a heavily fortified military factory in the south of the city, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, adding that a convoy of reinforcements arrived after the attack. "At least 112 rebels have been killed since Wednesday in fighting with troops between Safireh and the town of Khanasir" about 40km farther south, Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP over the phone. He said regime forces were stationed at defence establishments in Safireh and have set up checkpoints on the route to Khanasir, but Al-Nusra and several other rebel battalions control the streets of Safireh. The watchdog said the city has become a "ghost town", after residents fled army bombardments en masse. The Observator gave an initial nationwide toll of 45 people killed today, including 18 civilians. Elsewhere, troops shelled rebels on the eastern and southern outskirts of Damascus amid street battles as part of an army offensive. The army on Tuesday launched a major assault on rebel zones surrounding Damascus as it sought to break the stalemate in Syria's almost 23-month conflict. The Observatory said three rebels were killed today in the southern district of Tadamun while six rebels died in shelling on Moadamiyet al-Sham, near the key Al-Mazzeh military airbase southwest of the capital. The Observatory, meanwhile, updated its toll from a Wednesday attack on a bus carrying employees of a military-owned factory, saying at least 54 civilians, including 11 women, were killed. "This plant has nothing to do with weapons. They simply sew uniforms and make boots for soldiers," Abdel Rahman said. (AFP) KKM KKM 02082338 NNNN