Syrian security forces kill five militants in clash

DAMASCUS (Reuters) – Syrian security forces have killed
five militants in a clash in central Syria with an Islamist
group plotting “terrorist” attacks, the official SANA news
agency said on Saturday.

“The anti-terror squad raided on Friday evening a hideout
of a terrorist group belonging to Jund al-Sham in the Hama
governorate,” it said, quoting an Interior Ministry source.

“A clash took place and resulted in the killing of all five
members of the group,” while two Syrian security officers were
wounded, it said.

Syrian forces also found an arsenal of weapons, bombs and
explosives stashed in the group’s hideout in an isolated house
in Jibrin, a village near Syria’s central city of Hama, it
said.

“The group was about to execute terrorist actions that seek
to destabilize the security and stability of society,” SANA
quoted the source as saying.

Late Syrian President Hafez al-Assad crushed a revolt by
Islamic militants mainly linked to the banned Muslim
Brotherhood organization in Hama in the early 1980s.

Syria has also cracked down on suspected Islamic militants
in recent months, arresting dozens and extraditing 21 to
Tunisia and 12 to Saudi Arabia in July.

Syria said it killed a Tunisian Islamic militant who was
among a group trying to cross the border into Lebanon and
arrested 34 other last month. Two soldiers were also killed in
that clash.

Syria also arrested two militants after a clash in the
Qasioun hills on the edge of Damascus last month and SANA said
some members of the “terrorist” group had worked as bodyguards
for former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

Syria is under increasing pressure from the United States
to seal its desert border with Iraq to stop Islamic militants
from crossing to fight U.S. forces there.

A source close to Syrian government thinking said Syria was
trying to stop any activity by al Qaeda or any of its
affiliates in Syria.