Al-Qaida stages attack in Damascus

Suicide bomb injures general thought to be target of clash in Syrian capital

DAMASCUS, Syria -- Syrian soldiers battled a small group of insurgents, including a suicide bomber, who attacked a Syrian military logistics facility in the capital Monday, militants and activists said.

The relatively rare Damascus attack took place in the Rukneddine neighborhood and was claimed by the al-Qaida branch in Syria. Syrian state media said all the militants were killed but provided no further details.

The director of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Rami Abdurrahman, said the bombing appeared to target a general who is responsible for army logistics and supplies. He said the general was wounded in the blast, while three of his guards were killed in the ensuing clashes with the militant attackers.

The observatory relies on a network of activists inside Syria for its information.

The al-Qaida-affiliated Nusra Front posted a claim of responsibility on a Twitter account associated with the group, saying three of the group's fighters were involved.

Syrian state television later broadcast video of what it said was the scene of the attack, showing the bodies of two men dressed in camouflage sprawled in the street. The legs of the suicide bomber were visible on the pavement nearby.

Attacks such as Monday's have been rare in the capital, which remains under the firm grip of President Bashar Assad.

Elsewhere, heavy fighting broke out in a mountainous area near the Lebanese border Monday after the Nusra Front launched a surprise attack targeting Syrian army and Hezbollah positions there. A Lebanese security official, speaking on condition of anonymity according to regulations, said Syrian warplanes launched a series of airstrikes on suspected militant positions in the Qalamoun region that reverberated across the Lebanese border.

Al-Manar TV, run by Lebanon's Hezbollah group, which supports the Syrian government, reported later that at least 20 militants were killed and 50 injured as Syrian warplanes repelled their attack.

A major battle has been anticipated in the area, pitting Hezbollah and the Syrian army against militants belonging to the Nusra Front and the Islamic State extremist group entrenched there.

Meanwhile, the observatory reported Monday that the death toll of civilians purportedly killed in airstrikes by the U.S.-led coalition on a village controlled by the Islamic State in Syria has risen to 64, including 31 children, as the U.S. military said it is assessing whether to launch a formal investigation into the claim.

U.S. Army Col. Steve Warren, a Pentagon spokesman, said that so far there was no information to indicate there were civilians present in the village. He said U.S. Central Command is assessing the claims of civilian deaths in order to determine if a formal investigation should be opened.

Earlier, U.S. Central Command spokesman Maj. Curtis Kellogg said there was no indication that any civilians were killed in the airstrikes Thursday night on the northern Syrian village of Bir Mahli.

Warren said the aircraft targeted 50 Islamic State fighters and their camp. Kellogg said a vehicle was also hit.

But the observatory, which first reported the civilian deaths, said Monday at least 64 civilians were killed in the airstrikes on the remote village near the border city of Kobani.

Abdurrahman said the dead include 16 girls and 15 boys, as well as 19 women. He said the airstrikes hit civilians, all of them Arabs, in their homes.

It was not immediately possible to independently verify the conflicting reports in the village.

Two videos and several photos purporting to show the aftermath of the strikes on the mixed Arab and Kurdish village were mostly produced by the Islamic State's media arms. In one video released by the pro-Islamic State Aamaq News Agency, a man walks between children allegedly wounded in the airstrikes.

Kurdish fighters, backed by coalition airstrikes, pushed the Islamic State militants out of Kobani earlier this year. But the extremist group still controls other nearby villages and has continued to battle the largely Kurdish opposition in the area.

Kellogg said that before the airstrikes, Kurdish forces in the area said the village has been emptied of civilians for at least two weeks.

Shorsh Hassan, a spokesman in Kobani for the main Kurdish militia known as the People's Protection Units, had earlier said that Bir Mahli was emptied of civilians.

Information for this article was contributed by Ryan Lucas, Zeina Karam, Sarah El Deeb and Lolita Baldor of The Associated Press.

A Section on 05/05/2015

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