DHAKA: Fierce clashes between regime troops and rebels near an opposition stronghold east of Syria’s capital Damascus has killed more than 70 combatants.

A monitoring group reported on Sunday, reports daily Hurriyet.

Saturday’s fighting in the Eastern Ghouta region killed 28 jihadists of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and the Al-Nusra Front, 26 fighters from the Free Syrian Army, and 18 soldiers, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Also killed were five so-called citizen-journalists, members of the public who have taken to reporting on Syria’s conflict in which more than 120,000 people have died since March 2011.

Eastern Ghouta, a ring of suburbs besieged by the army for months, was targeted in an August chemical attack that the US and other world powers blamed on president Bashar al-Assad’s regime.

As part of a deal to head off US military strikes, Damascus has agreed to destroy its entire chemical weapons arsenal.

Syria is cooperating with the disarmament operation being carried out by international experts, who have reported that the entire chemical arsenal has been sealed, awaiting destruction.

BDST: 1655 HRS, NOV 24, 2013