Special to WorldTribune.com

NICOSIA — The Syrian military has reported a major victory over Islamist rebels.

The regime of President Bashar Assad said the Syrian Army killed at least 175 rebels in an attack south of Damascus on Feb. 26.

A government statement, confirmed by the opposition, said the Army ambushed a rebel force, which included foreign fighters, near Lake Oteibah.

“Upon intelligence information, a unit of the Army killed members of an armed terrorist group, among them of Saudi, Qatari and Chechen nationalities, in the Eastern Ghouta of Damascus countryside,” the official Syrian news agency, Sana, said.

On Feb. 26, Sana quoted an unidentified Army commander as saying that the rebels stemmed from Al Qaida’s Nusra Front for the Defense of the Levant as well as Liwa Al Islam. The commander said the rebel force were trying to break out of the military’s siege of Eastern Ghouta, a string of suburbs south of Damascus.

Officials said the rebel force could have sought to link with Islamist fighters trained and equipped by the United States. They said hundreds of fighters were crossing from Jordan to Syria to ease the siege around Damascus. In mid-February, a force of several hundred CIA-trained rebels were reported to have crossed the Jordanian border where they were ambushed by Islamist militias in southern Syria.

“He affirmed that the armed group was trying to ease pressure on
terrorists, who underwent severe strikes from the Syrian Army in Al
Qalamoun, by bringing terrorists, supported by Western and regional states
through the borders of Jordan,” Sana quoted the Army commander as saying.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least 152 rebels were
killed in the Syrian Army strike. Syrian Observatory, based in Britain, said
most of the casualties stemmed from Nusra and Liwa.

“This is the heaviest loss for Nusra Front and Islamic brigades since
the start of the revolution,” Syrian Observatory director Rami Abdul Rahman
said.

Opposition sources said the Iranian-sponsored Hizbullah led the
operation against the rebels. They said Hizbullah began the dawn attack by
detonating bombs along the route used by Nusra and Liwa.

“Hizbullah was the main group that implemented the ambush,” Abdul Rahman
said.

  Assad, CIA-trained rebels, Damascus, Eastern Ghouta, kill 175