DAMASCUS, Syria — Syrian government forces retook a Christian town north of Damascus on Monday after a week of fierce clashes with al-Qaida-linked fighters who had recently captured key parts of it, state media said.
The fighting came as the U.N.-Arab League envoy arrived in Syria on his first trip to the country in almost a year.
Lakhdar Brahimi is trying to prepare a peace conference on Syria supposed to take place in Geneva next month, but the gathering has been increasingly in doubt as Syria's warring factions refuse to face each other at the negotiating table.
The United States and Russia have been trying for months to convene the conference to negotiate a political solution to Syria's civil war, which has killed more than 100,000 people and forced some 2 million to flee the country since the conflict broke out in March 2011.
