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Three gunmen killed in clashes with government forces: report

12 October 2011 23:38 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Three gunmen were killed in the central province of Homs when Syria’s specialized forces clashed Tuesday with armed men, who kidnapped an army pilot officer 10 days ago, the official SANA news agency reported Wednesday, APA reports.

Syrian specialized forces stormed the farm, where the kidnapped pilot had been held captive, and confiscated large quantities of weapons and ammos, including rocket-propelled grenades and automatic rifles in addition to explosive devices, SANA said.

The operation was carried out in accordance with the information provided by the pilot, who had managed to escape and reported the hideout of captors, SANA quoted an official source as saying.

In the southern city of Daraa, where protests first erupted in Syria seven months ago, specialized authorities apprehended Murad Abu Zaid, who had committed many crimes in Daraa, according to SANA.

Meanwhile, the Doha-based al-Jazeera TV cited activists group Local Coordination Committees as saying that at least 12 people were killed across Syria in clashes with security forces.

The report said nine of the victims were gunned down in Homs, Syria’s third largest city that has spearheaded rallies against President Bashar al-Assad since protests erupted on March 15.

The al-Jazeera report couldn’t be independently verified, as there were no official comments on the report.

Syria has been wracked by almost seven-month-old unrest it blames on foreign conspiracy and foreign thugs.

Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem has recently put the number of army officers and law-enforcement troops killed since the eruption of protests in Syria in mid March at 1,110, while a recent UN tally put the number of civilians and security forces who were killed during the crisis at nearly 2,900.