Syrian forces kill at least 49 rebels near Damascus

Syrian President Bashar Assad's forces ambushed rebels in a strategic suburb near the capital Damascus on Sunday, killing at least 49 people, a pro-opposition monitoring group said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the opposition fighters had been killed near Adra, a town that rebels have been fighting to recapture from Assad's forces. It lies on a route that the rebels had been using to smuggle weapons into Damascus until the army captured it a few months ago. (Reuters)