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| 75 killed near Damascus, militants admit |
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 The Syrian Army killed at least 75 insurgents over 24 hours in battles for control of the capital Damascus, a monitoring group with close links to the militants said on Monday, one of the deadliest single-day tolls for foreign-sponsored fighters in the 2-year-old conflict.
The death toll, reported by the Britain-based Observatory for Human Rights, included 49 rebels killed in an ambush in Damascus' northeastern suburb of Adra early on Sunday. The group said an elite Republican Guard unit attacked the rebels as they were trying to push into the capital, and that the government commander leading the operation also died in the ensuing gunbattle, AP reported.
The group relies on reports from spies inside Syria. The Syrian state news agency SANA also reported the ambush, without giving a casualty figure.
Damascus and its suburbs have been a key battlefield for over a year, with militants trying to push into its center from strongholds in the suburbs. Some of President Bashar al-Assad's most reliable units, including the Republican Guard and the 4th Division commanded by his younger brother Maher, are charged with its defense and have been trying to flush out rebels from its environs.
The Observatory reported that another 17 rebels died in fighting Sunday in clashes in Damascus neighborhoods of Qaboun and Jobar, while another nine were killed in clashes that have raged in the suburbs of Daraya, Harasta and Douma.
Syria has been gripped by deadly unrest since 2011. According to the UN, more than 90,000 people have been killed and millions of others displaced in the violence.
Damascus says the chaos is being orchestrated from outside the country, and there are reports that a very large number of the militants are foreign nationals.
The Syrian government says the West and its regional allies -- especially Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey -- are supporting the militants.
The militants from a number of countries have been crossing into Syria to fight against the government of Assad, contributing to an international effort to destabilize the Arab country.
Several international human rights organizations say the foreign-sponsored militants have committed war crimes in Syria.
The Syrian troops have recently conducted successful clean-up operations across the country, inflicting heavy losses on the rebels.
The Syrian Army’s push against the militants rattled their foreign sponsors.
Syrian Information Minister Omran al-Zoubi said on June 26 that Saudi Arabia is trembling with fear because of the Syrian Army’s recent successes against the militants.
In a meeting with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry in Jeddah, Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal insisted on June 25 that the militants in Syria must be armed with anti-aircraft and anti-tank weapons.
Zoubi said that the Saudi weapons and money is the main reason behind bloodshed in Syria, adding that Faisal “is lost in the Syrian blood.”
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