Syria Rebels Kill 7 Troops in North after Suffering Mass Casualties as Army Presses Damascus Assault

Islamist al-Nusra Front rebels killed seven Syrian soldiers at a checkpoint in the northern city of Safireh on Friday, after losing more than 100 men in the area over the past 72 hours, a watchdog said.

The checkpoint was guarding a heavily fortified military factory in the south of the city, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, adding that a convoy of reinforcements arrived after the attack.

"At least 112 rebels have been killed since Wednesday in fighting with troops between Safireh and the town of Khanasir" about 40 kilometers (25 miles) farther south, Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman told Agence France Presse by phone.

He said regime forces were stationed at defense establishments in Safireh and have set up checkpoints on the route to Khanasir, but al-Nusra and several other rebel battalions control the streets of Safireh.

The watchdog said the city has become a "ghost town", after residents fled army bombardments en masse.

The Observatory, which gathers its information from a network of activists and medics in civilian and military hospitals on the ground, gave a toll of at least 99 people killed nationwide on Friday, including 41 civilians.

Elsewhere, troops shelled rebels on the eastern and southern outskirts of Damascus amid street battles as an army offensive raged.

The army on Tuesday launched a major assault on rebel zones surrounding Damascus as it sought to break the stalemate in Syria's almost 23-month conflict.

The Observatory said three rebels were killed on Friday in the southern district of Tadamun while six rebels died in shelling on Moadamiyet al-Sham, near the key al-Mazzeh military airbase southwest of the capital.

The Zamalka neighborhood, also in the east, was bombed by warplanes, the watchdog said.

Troops also shelled the eastern city of Deir Ezzor, the northeast province of Raqa, the northwest province of Idlib, the central province of Hama, the northern province of Aleppo and the southern province of Daraa.

The Observatory meanwhile updated its toll from a Wednesday attack on a bus carrying employees from a military-owned factory in Hama province, saying at least 60 civilians, including 11 women, were killed.

"This plant has nothing to do with weapons. They simply sew uniforms and make boots for soldiers," Abdel Rahman said.

The United Nations says more than 60,000 people have been killed in Syria since the outbreak of a revolt in March 2011 that morphed into an insurgency after the army launched a brutal crackdown on dissent.

Suspected members of an Islamist rebel faction tore up the flag of the revolution on Friday at an anti-regime protest in the city of Saraqeb in Idlib province.

Cries of "Unity, Freedom, an Islamic state!" were met by chants of "Unity, freedom, a civil state!" as a scuffle broke out.

In footage posted on YouTube, a man identified as a member of "the Islamic battalion" taunts another demonstrator holding the three-starred banner aloft.

As the flag-bearer takes a swipe at him, two others rush to grab the pole and push him away. One breaks the pole, and angrily throws the symbol of the revolt on the ground.

Saraqeb is home to the full spectrum of opposition forces and has seen protests against al-Nusra Front in recent weeks despite the hardline group's heavy presence there.