BEIRUT: At least 50 militants were killed in an ambush by Syrian government forces in a mountainous area near the Lebanese border on Saturday, activists and security sources said.

Forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad backed by allies from the Lebanese Shia militant movement Hezbollah have largely pushed insurgents from towns and villages in the Qalamoun region bordering Lebanon since March, but some pockets of militants have held out.

On Saturday, pro-government militias and Hezbollah fighters led an artillery ambush killing “dozens” of rebels, including from the Al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front and the Islamic State, an Al Qaeda offshoot, the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

The ambush took place near the town of al-Jobeh, around 10km from the border.

The Observatory’s director Rami Abdurrahman said it was not clear exactly how many rebels died in the fighting in the region, but the total was “at least 50”.

Lebanese and Syrian security sources put the death toll much higher, saying around 170 militants were killed, but this could not be independently confirmed.

Published in Dawn, August 3rd, 2014