Syrian troops fight rebels at Sayida Zeinab shrine

Syrian troops backed by Lebanese Shia Hizbullah fighters yesterday clashed with rebels near the gold-domed shrine of Sayida Zeinab, tomb of the granddaughter of the Prophet Muhammad. After radical Sunni jihadis vowed to destroy the shrine, Hizbullah and Iraqi Shia fighters deployed in the mixed neighbourhood to protect the site venerated by Shias.

Opposition sources say that the army seeks to cut rebel supply lines by imposing control over villages on the southern outskirts of the capital.

The official Syrian news agency Sana reported that fighters loyal to the radical Sunni Jabhat al-Nusra set fire to al-Wahdah Syriac Catholic church in Deir al-Zor city. Last week Jabhat elements destroyed a Shia meeting hall in a village in Deir al-Zor province where they had previously slain 60 soldiers and civilians.

Rebels also seized a Syrian army checkpoint on the main international highway stretching from Aleppo through the government-held town of Idlib to Latakia on the coast, reported the opposition Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Other rebel forces said they had captured three additional checkpoints and needed to take three more to deny the army access to the highway with the aim of cutting supplies and reinforcements for troops besieging rebel-held quarters of Aleppo.

“The regime is responding by shelling the highway and sending fighter jets to bomb nearby villages,” stated Mohamed Fizo, a rebel spokesman.

Depot explosion
In Latakia, a government stronghold, an arms depot at a military site exploded, wounded six people, state television said.

Responding to the G8 summit’s call for an international conference on Syria, the opposition National Coalition said it is “committed to any solution that puts an end to bloodshed, and achieves the Syrian people’s aspirations to bring down the Assad regime.”

The coalition said it “reserves the right to use all means . . . chiefly military action” to achieve this end.

The Philippines declared its peacekeepers would remain until August in the UN force monitoring the ceasefire line between Syria and the Israeli-occupied Golan. Manila said they could stay longer if the UN boosted security in the area where troops clashed with rebels last month.

In Lebanon, spillover from the Syrian conflict continued to fan tensions across the country. A previously unknown group, the Mujahideen Battalion stationed along the Syria-Lebanon border, claimed the ambush that killed three Shias and a Turk on Sunday saying they were Hizbullah operatives travelling to Syria.

Caretaker interior minister Marwan Charbel dismissed the claim while people in the area consulted by The Irish Times blamed the killings on a feud between pro-rebel Sunnis from the village of Arsal and pro-regime Shias from Hermel whose mutual hatreds have been sharpened by events in Syria.

Security was restored in the southern port city of Sidon after one man was killed during three hours of clashes between gunmen from a Sunni radical group and supporters of Hizbullah in the nearby village of Abra. Some 400 soldiers separated the combatants and halted the fighting on Tuesday.