Six people including two militants were wounded in a clash between a "terror" group and Syrian security forces Sunday in the northern city of Aleppo, the official state agency reported. "The clashes happened when security forces followed a terrorist group that intended to commit terrorist acts in Aleppo," 355 kilometers north of Damascus, the report said."Two terrorists were wounded in the clashes as well as a member of the security forces and two civilians," it said.
| Are the Syrians going after the jihadis in transit to Iraq, or after homegrown insurgents who want Pencilneck deposed? |
| "We will say no more!" |
Security forces have clashed with militants several times in recent months, chiefly during raids to arrest them. In October, Syria arrested a group of radical Islamist militants who it said planned to launch attacks inside the country. Security forces killed a Muslim militant in September and arrested two in another clash in northeast Syria. A week before, the forces killed five members of an Islamist militant group in a gun battle in the northwest of the country and discovered a cache of weapons.
Authorities say they have also tightened the noose on suspected Arab Islamists, arresting dozens and extraditing scores to their home countries, including Saudi Arabia.
The United States has piled pressure on Syria to seal its long eastern desert border with Iraq to stop militants from crossing to fight U.S. forces there. Syria says it is doing its best to control the frontier but calls on the United States and Iraq to do more on their side too. One group accused by the Syrian authorities of planning attacks - the Jund al-Sham, or Soldiers of the Levant - has been linked by some terrorism analysts to Al-Qaeda leader's in Iraq, Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
| Dan Darling points to this article for more info. |