Syrian forces ‘kill many rebels’ in Eastern Ghouta

Syrian government forces have ambushed and killed a large number of Islamist rebel fighters in the eastern outskirts of the capital Damascus, reports say.
Syrian state media says 175 died. The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says it has received reports that at least 70 died in the fighting in the Eastern Ghouta region. The area is a rebel stronghold where Syrian forces are believed to have carried out a chemical weapons attack last year.
“Acting on information and in a well-organised ambush, our courageous army killed dozens of al-Nusra Front terrorists, most of them non-Syrians, in the Eastern Ghouta area,” said state television.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said: “Dozens of Islamist fighters were killed and wounded in an ambush by loyalist troops, with the help of (Lebanese Shia group) Hezbollah, near Otaybeh village in the Eastern Ghouta area.”
The Nusra Front is an al-Qaeda-linked group that has joined rebels in an armed revolt against President Bashar al-Assad. Syria’s war has killed more than 140,000 people and forced millions to flee since March 2011.