BEIRUT (AP) — Gunmen killed a government official in a Damascus restaurant, Syrian state media and activists reported today as regime troops and rebels fought fierce battles near the Lebanese border.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the official, Ali Ballan, was gunned down late Thursday in Mazzeh, a western neighborhood of the Syrian capital.
Ballan was head of public relations at the Ministry of Social Affairs and a member of Syria’s relief agency, the Observatory said.
The state-run SANA news agency said “terrorists” opened fire at Ballan while he was dining at the restaurant, killing him instantly. The government refers to opposition fighters as terrorists, denying there is an insurgency against President Bashar Assad’s regime.
Since Syria’s crisis began two years ago, Damascus has seen a number of assassinations of government and security officials, as well as regime supporters.
Last month, a suicide bomber struck a Damascus mosque, killing a top Sunni Muslim preacher and outspoken Assad supporter, Sheikh Mohammad Said Ramadan al- Buti.
On July 18, a bomb inside a high-level crisis meeting in Damascus killed top security officials, including the defense minister and his deputy, who was also Assad’s brother-in-law, and wounded the interior minister. Rebels claimed responsibility for that blast.
Meanwhile, fierce fighting continued today near the contested town of Qusair in the central Syrian province of Hom, along the Lebanese border. On Thursday, government forces captured a town in the province and rebels seized a military base in the area.
The border region in Homs is strategic because it also links Damascus with the coastal enclave that is the heartland of Assad’s minority Alawite sect, a Shiite offshoot. The coast is home to the country’s two main seaports, Latakia and Tartus. Assad’s regime is dominated by his Alawites while the rebels are mostly from the country’s Sunni majority.
On Thursday, government forces captured the town of Abel, cutting the road between Homs and Qusair, said Rami Abdul-Rahman.
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