Syria: Car bomb in Damascus suburb kills 18

 

DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) -- Syrian state media say a car bomb has struck in a Damascus suburb, killing at least 18 people and wounding 56.

The news agency SANA says the powerful blast hit the Syrian capital's suburb of Jaramana late on Tuesday.

The suburb is an overwhelmingly pro-regime district located just a few kilometers (miles) southeast of Damascus.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack.

Rebels fighting to oust President Bashar Assad from power have frequently targeted areas where regime supporters and members of the government or security forces live.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

Syrian rebels captured a major air base in the north of the country on Tuesday, depriving President Bashar Assad's forces of a main post near the border with Turkey in one of the opposition's strongest campaigns in months against the regime in Damascus, activists said.

The capturing of Mannagh helicopter base will also clear an important supply route from Turkey for the rebels, in need of weapons and troops to strengthen the battle for Assad's ouster. The opposition's triumph on the northern front coincided with the rebels' assault on the heartland of Assad's minority Alawite sect in the west that brought the opposition closer to the president's ancestral home in Latakia province.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said members of the al-Qaida-linked Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant led the battle for the air base. After months of fighting with government troops, they launched an all-out offensive against it Monday when a Saudi suicide attacker blew up his vehicle outside the command center. They captured the sprawling compound before dawn Tuesday, according to another activist group, the Aleppo Media Center.

Syria state media denied that the base had fully fallen with the official news service SANA reporting that the "armed forces are confronting terrorists with great courage" inside the base, using a term the regime uses for rebels, fighting to topple Assad's regime.

At least 10 rebels, including foreign fighters were killed in the fighting, according to the Observatory, adding that rebels took prisoner a number of government troops. It did not say how many soldiers died in the fighting.

Rebel victories have been comparatively rare in recent months, and Assad's forces have been on the offensive in the center of the country.

Mannagh, in the northern Aleppo province, is deep inside territory dominated by the Syrian opposition. Rebels have been trying since last year to capture it, but faced strong resistance from defenders.

Rebels seized part of it in June, and since then its fall has been widely expected. The air base is the largest to fall in rebel hands since opposition forces captured the Taftanaz base in the northern province of Idlib in January.

Syria main's opposition bloc, the Western-backed Syrian National Coalition, hailed the capturing of the base, saying rebels "fully liberated the Mannagh air base and will transfer it from a regime tool for oppression to a minaret of liberation."

Amateur videos released by activists showed rebels walking inside the base amid damaged helicopters. Several tanks and armored personnel carriers could also be seen in the base.

"Thanks to God, the airport was fully liberated and here are the spoils," said the narrator as rebels could be seen standing in front of an armored personnel carrier and green wooden ammunition boxes.

The videos appeared genuine and corresponded to other Associated Press reporting on the events depicted.

The capture of Mannagh could now free hundreds of opposition fighters to reinforce other fronts, including the sieges of the nearby Shiite-majority regime-held towns of Nubul and Zahra.

Syria's conflict has taken on an increasingly sectarian tone in the last year, pitting predominantly Sunni Muslim rebels against members of Assad's Alawite sect.

The fall of Mannagh followed the rebel capture of eleven villages in the Alawite heartland on the country's Mediterranean coast. The opposition's gains in Latakia province, an Assad's stronghold that has been peaceful and under Assad's control for much of the conflict, now in its third year, is a symbolic blow to the regime. The advances were overshadowed by reports that more than 80 people were killed in two of the villages overran by rebels, activists said. The spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.

If confirmed, the slayings will likely deepen sectarian tensions in the conflict that has started as largely peaceful uprising against Assad's rule in March 2011. It turned into a civil war after opposition supporters took up arms to fight a brutal government crackdown. More than 100,000 people have been killed in the violence.

Members of Syria Sunni Muslim majority dominate the rebel ranks and Assad's regime is mostly made up of Alawaite minority, an offshoot sect of Shiite Islam.

The Observatory reported heavy fighting in Latakia on Tuesday. State news service SANA said the army has launched a counter-offensive in the coastal province and has by evening recaptured two villages from the rebels. SANA did not say how many people were killed in the fighting.

Both sides in Syria's civil war accuse each other of mass killings that are increasingly motivated by sectarian hate. The opposition also claims that Assad's forces have used chemical weapons in their attacks.

The SNC said Tuesday that the Syrian government has carried out more than 20 "massacres" during the holy month of Ramadan alone, killing hundreds of civilians.

The coalition's spokesman Louy Safi told reporters in Istanbul said government troops used chemical agents in three recent attacks, and said Assad's forces is also targeted civilians with ballistic missiles.

Also Tuesday, pro-government daily Al-Watan said rebel kidnapped Sheik Badreddine Ghazal, a prominent Alawite cleric in Latakia region. The paper said he was taken Monday from the village of Barouda, one of those captured by earlier rebels.

A government official in Damascus confirmed Ghazal's abduction saying the cleric was "severely beaten" by his captors. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations, did not give further details.

More than 100,000 people have been killed in the conflict and millions have been displaced and forced out of their homes, seeking shelter in safer parts of the country or in neighboring states such as Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq and Turkey.

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Associated Press writer Bassem Mroue contributed to this report.