At least 16 rebel fighters were killed Friday morning as a result of the intense battles between the Syrian troops and the armed militants groups in the country's southern province of al-Qunaitera, amid battles elsewhere in the war-torn country, the oppositional Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported.
Battles between radical groups and the Syrian troops have kept raging since Friday morning in the central sector of al-Qunaitera, which borders the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, said the Observatory, adding that a Syrian gunship dropped a crude barrel bomb at the town of Majdolia in the countryside of al-Qunaitera with no information on causalities yet.
The Syrian troops also shelled the area of Naba al-Sakher in the countryside of the same province, leaving injuries, according to the Observatory, which relies on a network of activists on ground.
The battles in al-Qunaitera were stirred late last month when militants from the al-Qaida-linked Nusra Front and likeminded groups unleashed what they called the "Battle of True Promise" which is aimed at seizing many areas in al-Qunaitera province.
Since then, intense battles raged in that area as the militant groups seized the border crossing that separates Syria and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights and also snatched 44 UN peacekeepers in al-Qunaitera.
On Thursday, the Israeli military attacked a Syrian army position after a stray mortar shell fired across the border landed in the northern Golan Heights.
The Observatory said the Israeli response to the stray shell came in an airstrike that hit a military position of the Syrian army, killing four Syrian soldiers.
Syria's state media hasn't commented on the incident.
Syria has technically been in a state of war with Israel since a long time ago. Their enmity has risen with the Syrian administration rendering support to the Lebanese Hezbollah.
Israel captured the Golan Heights from Syria during the 1967 Arab-Israel war. Syria launched another war in 1973 to regain some small parts of the land that Israel occupied six years earlier.
In recent months of the Syrian crisis, Israel has offered medical treatment to dozens of Syrian rebels in al-Qunaitera, amid local warnings that it was doing so to protect its side of the borders against possible threats from radical militants.
Meanwhile, the Observatory said Friday the Syrian troops killed 18 fighters of the Islamic State (IS) militants in an airstrike a day earlier in the eastern province of Deir al-Zour. It added that most of those killed were foreign fighters, one of whom was an American.
The pan-Arab al-Mayadeen television said recently that at least four Americans fighting alongside the IS were killed in Syria at a time the international community expressed worries on the participation of European and American hardliners in the battles against the Syrian troops.
The TV report said that the Syrian troops kept advancing on Friday in the eastern al-Ghouta countryside of the capital Damascus, mainly in the hotspot suburb of Jobar, where intense battles have been raging since more than a week ago.
The TV cited activists' reports as accusing the head of the Islam Army militant group, Zahran Alloush, of treason as a result of the advancement of the Syrian troops there.
Witnesses told Xinhua Friday that the Syrian war jets carried multiple airstrikes against Jobar as the roaring of warplanes could be heard in several districts of Damascus close to Jobar.
Rebel influence in Jobar, which lies 2 km northeast of the walls of the old city of Damascus, has threatened the administration of President Bashar al-Assad because the suburb neighbors the government-controlled eastern districts of the capital. Throughout the country's four-year civil war, rebels in the suburb have repeatedly attempted to breach the capital from Jobar.
Meanwhile, the state news agency SANA said the Syrian troops on Friday targeted opposition fighters in rebel-held towns and areas in the southern province of Daraa and its countryside, killing and injuring many of them.
The state news agency also said that the Syrian troops foiled a rebel attack against a military site in the countryside of the central province of Homs, namely in the al-Saen town in the city of Talbiseh, leaving undisclosed number of killed assailants.
The surge in rebel attacks came just days after the United Nations Security Council adopted a resolution on Aug. 15, which authorized international actions that suppress support for Islamist militants, especially of the al-Nusra Front and Islamic State, who have recently established what they call an "Islamic Caliphate" in areas under their control in Syria and Iraq.
The Islamic State, led by the shadowy figure Abu Bakr Baghdadi, has made strides against government troops in both Iraq and Syria. The group was originally formed in Iraq and served as the al-Qaida franchise there before breaking away to spread further outside of Iraq and into Syria. It now has claimed authority over large swathes of territories in Iraq and Syria.
Top Syrian officials stressed recently that the Syrian government is ready to cooperate with international powers on fighting terrorism as long as the sovereignty of Syria is respected and their actions are coordinated with the Syrian government.
Over 191,000 people were reportedly killed in Syria between March 2011 and the end of April 2014, according to an updated United Nations study released last month.
Source: XINHUA