| Followup to the story Fred posted. |
âA clash took place and resulted in the killing of all five members of the group.â It said Syrian forces also found an arsenal of weapons, bombs and explosives stashed in the groupâs hideout in Jibrin, a village near the city of Hama, scene of an Islamist uprising in the early 1980s that was crushed on the orders of late Syrian President Hafez Al Assad.
Those Islamists were mainly affiliated to the Muslim Brotherhood organisation, which is banned in Syria. âThe group was about to execute terrorist actions that seek to destabilise the security and stability of society,â Sana quoted the source as saying.
It did not elaborate but Syrian security sources said all of the men killed in the gunbattle that began around 6 pm (1500 GMT) and lasted two to three hours were Syrian. Two Syrian security officers were wounded in the clash, which began when the militants opened fire on Syrian security forces who surrounded the isolated house they were holed up in. âThose inside were alerted to surrender through loudspeakers but they opened fire instead,â one source said, adding that the cell had rented two houses in the area but the other was empty.
| Ah yes, the old "Come out witcherhandsup" call on the loudspeaker, with predictable results. |
| All just different parts of the elephant. |
| Sure. You won't mind if we take over border security, will you? |
Syria said it killed a Tunisian militant who was among a group trying to cross the border into Lebanon the same month. Two Syrian soldiers were also killed in that clash.
In another incident weeks earlier, Syria arrested two militants in a clash in the Qasioun hills on the edge of Damascus and SANA said some members of the âterroristâ group had worked as bodyguards for former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.