* Dozens killed in battle near Damascus * 10 Jordan policemen hurt in clash with Syrian refugees
BEIRUT — Syrian troops backed by pro-government gunmen advanced during fierce battles with rebels Saturday capturing at least one village in a strategic area in Homs province near the Lebanese border. In Jdaidet Al-Fadl near Damascus, at least 69 people, many of them rebels, have been killed in a four-day battle pitting Syrian insurgents against government forces. Violence also raged in Sunni areas of the nearby majority Christian town of Jdaidet Artuz. The two towns are near Daraya, the scene of fierce fighting for several months. The latest fighting came as US officials said the Obama administration was poised to send millions more in non-lethal military aid to rebels trying to oust President Bashar Al-Assad. The clashes around the contested town of Qusair, close to the Syria-Lebanon boundary, had intensified over the past two weeks amid a fresh offensive by the Syrian army and a pro-government militia known as Popular Committees, backed by the Lebanese militant Hezbollah group. The border region near the provincial capital of Homs is strategic because it links Damascus with the coastal enclave that is the heartland of Syria's Alawites, a sect from which Assad hails, and is also home to the country's two main seaports, Latakia and Tartus. On the Lebanese side of the border, schools were evacuated Saturday in the villages of Al-Qasr, Bouweydah and Hawch amid fears that Syria's rebels could target the residents. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said six rebels were killed in the fighting adding that troops fully captured Radwaniyeh and are advancing in other villages. The Local Coordination Committees, another activist group, said Syrian warplanes were taking part in the fighting. The Observatory also reported fighting and shelling Saturday west of Damascus where the army has been attacking rebel positions in the areas of Jdaidet Artouz and Jdaidet Al-Fadel. The Observatory reported that 10 days of clashes between residents of the eastern village of Masrab and members of the Al-Qaeda-affiliated Jabhat Al-Nusra, or Nusra Front, left 37 people dead. It said the fighting began after a diesel tanker owner complained to Nusra Front members that villagers had taken his truck. Three members of the group went into the village to mediate, but were shot dead, according to the Observatory. During the fighting, government forces dropped weapons and ammunition to the villagers, the Observatory said. Both activist groups, the Observatory and the LCC, also reported fighting Saturday in other areas, including Aleppo and Idlib in the north, Deir el-Zour to the east and Daraa in the south. SANA said a shell fell outside a sports club in the northern city of Aleppo, Syria's largest and once commercial center, killing two children. In Amman, 10 policemen were injured in a clash with demonstrators in the Syrian refugee camp of Zaatari in northern Jordan, a security official said Saturday. The source, declining to be named, said two of the policemen were in serious condition after the clash on Friday night. Violence broke out as 100 refugees held a protest against living conditions in Zaatari, home to more than 160,000 Syrians who have fled the bloodshed in their country, and a ban on leaving the desert camp near the border with Syria. Jordan says it is hosting more than 500,000 Syrian refugees and the United Nations High Commissioner expects the number to soar to 1.2 million by the end of this year – equivalent to a fifth of the kingdom's population. – Agencies
