DAMASCUS // Syrian troops captured a western town near the border with Lebanon yesterday, after days of heavy fighting that killed dozens including nine doctors and nurses and the nephew of a Hizbollah cabinet minister.
The fighting is part of a fierce offensive north of the capital that has seen several rebel strongholds fall into government hands.
The forces of the Syrian president, Bashar Al Assad, launched the push into the rugged Qalamoun region along the border to cut off rebel supply routes and stem the flow of fighters. The fighting has forced thousands of Syrians to flee to neighbouring Lebanon.
Militants from Lebanon’s Iranian-backed Hizbollah group openly joined the war on the side of government forces in May, tipping the scales against the rebels fighting for Mr Al Assad’s overthrow.
Syria’s state Sana news agency said troops had seized control of Deir Attiyeh “after destroying all terrorist hideouts inside”. The government routinely refers to rebels trying to overthrow the government as terrorists.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights confirmed government forces were almost in full control of Deir Attiyeh, whose population is nearly a third Christian. An activist in the area, Amer Al Qalamouni, said troops captured the town after members of the radical Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant militia withdrew.
“They were very fierce battles and conditions for civilians there are dismal,” Mr Al Qalamouni said.
The Observatory and Mr Al Qalamouni said five doctors and four nurses were killed in the clashes over the past two days at Deir Attiyeh’s main hospital.
Sana quoted Syria’s health minister, Saeed Al Nayef, as having said “terrorists committed a massacre” by killing five doctors, five nurses and two ambulance’s drivers in Deir Attiyeh.
In Lebanon, an official said a nephew of the Lebanese agriculture minister, Hussein Haj, was killed in Syria this week while fighting in the Qalamoun region. Mr Haj is a senior Hizbollah official.
Sana said that the army killed many fighters in Deir Attiyeh including Saudis, and discovered underground tunnels. Saudi Arabia has been one of the strongest backers of the Syrian opposition.
The fighting has led to the closure of the road that links Damascus with the central city of Homs, home to one of Syria’s two oil refineries. The road closure has caused a fuel shortage in the capital.
Fighting is concentrated around the rebel-held town of Nabek, just south of Deir Attiyeh, according to Mr Al Qalamouni and TV reports.
Also yesterday, the Syrian National Coalition criticised the Syrian government for having said it would participate in UN-sponsored peace talks aimed at ending the country’s civil war, but that it was not going to the conference to hand over power.
“It has become evident that the Assad regime is trying to cover its war on the Syrian people, while maintaining a pretence of cooperation with the international community,” the coalition said.
The January 22 meeting in Geneva, which would be the first face-to-face talks between Mr Al Assad’s government and its opponents since the Syrian war began, has raised hopes for a negotiated end to fighting that activists claimed had killed more than 120,000.
The coalition said it would attend the Geneva talks.
* Associated Press