الرئيسية
At least 10 troops and security service agents were
killed in clashes with mutinous soldiers in the east of Syria, a human
rights group said on Saturday.(AFP/Anwar Amro)
By AFP
NICOSIA (AFP) - At least 10 troops and security service
agents were killed in clashes with mutinous soldiers in the east of
Syria, a human rights group said on Saturday.
The Syrian
Observatory for Human Rights said the deaths occurred late Friday in
Deir Ezzor while early Saturday a civilian was also killed in the
eastern city.
The clashes "killed at least 10 regular army troops
and security service agents, while three deserters were wounded, one of
them critically," the Britain-based watchdog said in a statement to
AFP.
The civilian died when he was hit by gunfire as security forces launched raids in Deir Ezzor and carried out arrests, it said.
On
Friday, the military confirmed that six elite pilots and four others
were killed in an attack the previous day, accusing foreign powers of
supporting acts of terror within Syria.
"An armed terrorist gang
murdered six pilots, an officer and three junior officers working for
the military air base," on Thursday, the army said in a statement quoted
by the state news agency SANA.
The ambush "took place on the Palmyra-Homs road yesterday afternoon," it said.
The
attack was claimed on Thursday by the rebel Free Syrian Army who said
seven military pilots were killed in an ambush on a bus.
The
rebel army has stepped up attacks on regime targets in recent weeks in a
bid to topple the government of President Bashar al-Assad who has waged
a bloody crackdown on pro-democracy protesters since mid-March.
At least six people were killed on Friday as protesters flooded the streets in support of the Free Syrian Army, activists said.
The
latest violence came as Arab ministers gathered in Cairo to draw up a
package of crippling sanctions against Syria after Assad's regime
ignored a Friday deadline to accept an observers' mission to monitor the
violence.