20 Lebanese fighters killed in Syrian battle

— Syrian security forces killed as many as 20 Lebanese gunmen who were fighting alongside rebels Friday in Syria, raising tensions amid mounting fears that the Syrian civil war is inflaming the region.

Lebanese security officials said the gunmen were killed as they tried to enter the Syrian town of Tal Kalakh, near the Lebanese border. The officials asked that their names not be used because they were not authorized to speak publicly.

Syrian state-run media also reported that Lebanese gunmen were killed. But the SANA report said there were 17 - not 20 - fighters. The discrepancy could not immediately be reconciled.

The Lebanese gunmen were Sunni Muslims, as are the vast majority of Syria’s rebels. Syrian President Bashar Assad - along with his most elite troops - belong to the Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam.

Lebanon and Syria share a complex web of political and sectarian ties and rivalries that are easily inflamed. Lebanon, a country plagued by decades of strife, has been on edge since the uprising in Syria against Assad began in March 2011, with deadly clashes between pro- and anti-Assad Lebanese groups occurring on several occasions.

The deaths came as rebels tried to close in on the Syriancapital, Damascus, in recent days.

On Friday, Syrian soldiers fought rebels in and around the capital as Internet and most telephone lines were blacked out for a second day. But the intense battles around the country’s international airport appeared to have calmed.

The airport road had reopened by Friday and the head of the Syrian Civil Aviation Agency, Ghaidaa Abdul-Latif, said the airport was operating “as usual.” A day earlier, heavy fighting forced the closure of the road and airlines canceled international flights to Damascus.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and residents who were interviewed Friday while leaving Syria said there was still sporadic fighting in pockets of the capital and on the outskirts.

A minibus driver said he heard explosions in the distance as he drove through Damascus.

“There are extreme security measures in Damascus today,” said the driver, who asked to be identified only by his first name, Mohamad, out of fear for his personal safety.

He spoke as drove intoLebanon, his minibus packed with women and children.

The communications blackout has raised fears of an explosion of fighting outside the public gaze. The Internet has been a key tool of activists over the course of the Syrian conflict, which started 20 months ago and has left more than 40,000 people dead, according to activists.

Syrian authorities previously have cut Internet and telephones in areas ahead of military operations. On Friday, some land lines were working sporadically.

In the southern part of the capital, the main road to Damascus’ airport reopened early Friday afternoon, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Intense clashes broke out after midnight in villages and towns near the facility but the area was calm by the late morning, the group said. It said rebels destroyed several army vehiclesnear the airport.

The Observatory for Human Rights, which has a network of activists around Syria, reported fighting in other southern neighborhoods of Damascus, includingTadamon and Hajar Aswad. The group said it was able to contact its sources by satellite telephones.

According to the humanrights group and witnesses who crossed into Lebanon, several suburbs - including Aqraba, Beit Saham and Daraya - also saw heavy fighting.

By contrast, a man who crossed into Lebanon with his wife and son said it was quiet Friday nearby in Damascus’ western suburb of Zabadani - a far cry from a day earlier, when the neighborhood was “like hell.”

But much of Thursday’s violence was focused on southern suburbs near the airport. The surrounding districts have been strongholds of rebel support since the uprising began.

Two Austrian soldiers assigned to the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force in the Golan Heights were wounded Thursday when their convoy came under fire on the way to the airport, Austria Press Agency said.

The two were transferred to Israel for treatment Fridayand their injuries are not lifethreatening, said David Ratner, a spokesman for Rambam Hospital in Haifa. He said the two soldiers suffered gunshot wounds - one in the chest and the other in the hand.

The U.N. refugee agency said Friday that it found desperate conditions in the Syrian city of Homs, where thousands of people are living in unheated shelters and a quarter of a million people are displaced from their homes.

An assessment team visiting this week saw half of the city’s hospitals shut down and “severe shortages of basic supplies ranging from medicine to blankets, winter clothes and children’s shoes,” agency spokesman Melissa Fleming said.

Syria is believed to have several hundred ballistic surface-to-surface missiles capable of carrying chemical warheads - a particular concern for Turkey, a NATO member.

On Friday, NATO said it will deploy Patriot missiles to Turkey’s border with Syria “within several weeks” after the move is approved.

Meanwhile, Lakhdar Brahimi, the U.N.-Arab League envoy for Syria, warned the international community Friday that the Mideast nation will become a failed state unless there is a negotiated political solution to the conflict.

Information for this article was contributed by Albert Aji and Edith M. Lederer of The Associated Press.

Front Section, Pages 10 on 12/01/2012

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