Syrian government forces booby trapped a cluster of farm buildings in
the southern Daraa province and detonated the explosives as several
Islamic rebel factions gathered at the venue, killing 17 militants,
opposition activists said Sunday.
The explosion, which took place late Saturday, was the latest blow to
the rebels shortly after the assassination the previous day of a
powerful rebel leader on the outskirts of Damascus.
The developments
could boost the position of the Damascus government ahead of Syria peace talks in Geneva next month.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported the
explosion in the village of Kfar Shams. Ahmad al-Masalmeh, a Daraa-based
opposition activist, said explosives were planted at the farm and were
detonated when the militants had gathered there.
"Once the fighters entered the farm, the explosives were detonated, killing 17," al-Masalmeh said.
Syria's state news agency reported that several fighters of the Islamic
Muthana Movement were killed and two of their "dens were demolished at
Kfar Shams."
In Turkey, gunmen fatally shot Syrian activist Naji al-Jarf as he walked
in a street in the southern city of Gaziantep, according to the
Observatory and the Syrian opposition's Shaam Network news group.
Al-Jarf was the editor-in-chief of pro-opposition Hinta Magazine,
according to Shaam Network.
The Observatory's chief, Rami Abdurrahman, said al-Jarf was killed with a
pistol outfitted with a silencer, adding that the motive for the
killing was unknown.
No one immediately claimed responsibility for the slaying. In October,
the Islamic State group said it was behind the killing of two opposition
activists in the southern Turkish city of Sanliurfa.
The identities of the Islamic fighters killed in the farm explosion were
not immediately known and it was not clear if they all belonged to the
Muthana Movement or other factions. The movement itself is a relatively
minor Daraa-based group of Islamic insurgents.
The area where the attack occurred is in a triangle that links Damascus
suburbs with the southern regions of Daraa and Quneitra. The village
itself is known to house many chicken farms, which supply large parts of
Syria with eggs and the attack apparently took place in one of the
chicken farms.
During past months, the area has been the scene of intense clashes that
have pitted Syrian troops and their allies from the Lebanese militant Hezbollah group against an array of Islamic insurgent groups, including the Muthana Movement.
President Bashar Assad's forces have been on a major push since Russia
began its air campaign in Syria on Sept. 30. Syrian troops and allied
militiamen have launched ground offensives in different parts of the
country, including areas near the capital, Damascus.
On Friday, Zahran Allouch, the leader of the powerful rebel Army of Islam,
was killed in an airstrike that targeted the group's headquarters
during a meeting. A number of senior commanders of the Army of Islam and
those of the ultraconservative Ahrar al-Sham and the Faylaq al-Rahman
groups were also killed.
The Syrian army claimed responsibility for the airstrike that killed
Allouch, although many among the opposition blamed Russia, which has
been bombing IS targets and other insurgent groups.
Allouch's death was cheered by government supporters and the rival
Islamic State — a reflection of his role in fighting both sides in the
Syrian civil war.
His death may have contributed — at least partially — to a delay in an
agreed-on pullout of thousands of militants and their families from
neighborhoods on the southern edge of Damascus.
Khaled Abdul-Majid, a Damascus-based Palestinian official, said in a
statement Sunday that the agreement had stumbled following Allouch's
killing. Buses that were to transport the fighters from Yarmouk were
supposed to pass through Army of Islam-controlled Beir al-Qassab area in
the southeastern countryside of Damascus.
The pullout, supposed to start on Saturday, was to involve mainly
militants from the Islamic State group who earlier this year overran the
Yarmouk area, which is home to a Palestinian refugee camp and has been
hotly contested and fought-over in the war, and two adjacent
neighborhoods.
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