A rebel bomb attack on an army base near Damascus killed 31 Syrian soldiers Sunday, as loyalist warplanes launched air raids on a town near the border with Lebanon.
The blast came amid a major regime offensive against rebel positions all around the capital and on second city Aleppo in the north.
“Three generals and a brigadier-general were among 31 troops killed in a bomb attack that caused a building in the army transport base in Harasta to collapse,” said Syrian Observatory for Human Rights director Rami Abdul Rahman.
“The timing of the attack is significant,” coming days after troops loyal to President Bashar al-Assad recaptured several areas that had been under rebel control for a year, he told AFP.
The explosives appeared to have been placed “either inside or beneath the building in a tunnel”, Abdul Rahman added, suggesting rebels may have infiltrated the base.
