Syrian troops, Hezbollah enter rebel-held mountain resort near Lebanon border

A second rebel grouping, Ansar Al Sharia – which is dominated by more militant forces, including Al Qaeda’s Syrian affiliate, Jabhat Al Nusra – launched an assault against several government-held districts of the city on Thursday.

The Syrian Army and Lebanese group Hezbollah said they had launched a major ground and air assault on the rebel-held Syrian city of Zabadani yesterday and were closing in on the militants holed up inside.

Footage found earth infantry joining areas of the city insincere within a plush agriculture ordinary nestled amidst piles variety featured into the central by having Lebanon.

“Twenty-five members of Al-Nusra Front, including a leader of the jihadist group, died in an explosion inside a mosque in the city of Ariha”, the Britain-based observatory said. The state news agency Sana said the attack had been repelled and 100 rebels killed.

Syrian troops backed by members of Lebanon’s Hizbollah group began a major offensive on Saturday – under the cover of intense airstrikes – to retake a rebel-held mountain resort.

Zabadani is strategically placed near the main highway linking Damascus to Beirut and rebel control there has long been a thorn in the Syrian government’s side, our correspondent adds. Activists have claimed that most of the civilians have fled the town when fighting started in the region.

Bombings targeting mosques have not been uncommon during Syria’s civil war.

Elsewhere in Syria, the US-led coalition said it carried out 18 air strikes against IS’s de facto Syrian capital of Raqa, destroying vehicles and bridges.

“I don’t know what their fate will be”, he told AFP.

On Saturday, fierce clashes raged around the complex as regime forces backed by airstrikes sought to recapture it. It said that several gunmen from Ahrar al-Sham militia were killed and wounded when Hezbollah targeted one of their fortifications with a guided missile in Zabadani’s Hay al-Gharbi neighborhood.

The Islamic State group on Saturday released a video showing the execution of 25 Syrian soldiers in the ancient amphitheatre in the city of Palmyra.

It also said army helicopters had dropped at least 12 barrel bombs on the town since Sunday morning.

The attacks have prompted heavy fighting and bombardments, with rebels firing hundreds of rockets and the government launching dozens of air strikes.