Syria rebel chieftain killed; Assad forces bomb besieged town
Source: Reuters
Syria rebel chieftain killed; Assad forces bomb besieged town
BY KHALED YACOUB OWEIS AND DOMINIC EVANS
AMMAN/ARSAL, Lebanon Mon Nov 18, 2013 12:19pm EST
(Reuters) - President Bashar al-Assad's forces fired rocket and artillery barrages on a besieged mountain town near Lebanon on Monday in a push to capture the strategic area following advances against rebels in Damascus and in the north of Syria.
In a separate setback for the fighters, a prominent rebel leader died overnight in a Turkish hospital of wounds suffered in an air raid on Aleppo. Abdelqader Saleh, head of the Qatar-backed Sunni Islamist al-Tawhid Brigades, had been working on regrouping fighters in Aleppo before he was killed.
Heavy bombardments hit Qara, 80 km (50 miles) north of Damascus in the Qalamoun mountains, as rebels hid in the rocky terrain, refugees and opposition activists said. Located near the highway linking the capital to Aleppo, Syria's biggest city, the region has been used by rebels to cross from Lebanon.
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