The explosion, which took place
late Saturday, was the latest blow to the rebels shortly after the
assassination the previous day of a powerful rebel leader on the
outskirts of Damascus. The developments could boost the position of the
Damascus government ahead of Syria peace talks in Geneva next month.
The
Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported the
explosion in the village of Kfar Shams. Ahmad al-Masalmeh, a Daraa-based
opposition activist, said explosives were planted at the farm and were
detonated when the militants had gathered there.
"Once the fighters entered the farm, the explosives were detonated, killing 17," al-Masalmeh said.
Syria's
state news agency reported that several fighters of the Islamic Muthana
Movement were killed and two of their "dens were demolished at Kfar
Shams."
In Turkey, gunmen
fatally shot Syrian activist Naji al-Jarf as he walked in a street in
the southern city of Gaziantep, according to the Observatory and the
Syrian opposition's Shaam Network news group. Al-Jarf was the
editor-in-chief of pro-opposition Hinta Magazine, according to Shaam
Network.
The Observatory's chief, Rami
Abdurrahman, said al-Jarf was killed with a pistol outfitted with a
silencer, adding that the motive for the killing was unknown.
No
one immediately claimed responsibility for the slaying. In October, the
Islamic State group said it was behind the killing of two opposition
activists in the southern Turkish city of Sanliurfa.
The
identities of the Islamic fighters killed in the farm explosion were
not immediately known and it was not clear if they all belonged to the
Muthana Movement or other factions. The movement itself is a relatively
minor Daraa-based group of Islamic insurgents.
The
area where the attack occurred is in a triangle that links Damascus
suburbs with the southern regions of Daraa and Quneitra. The village
itself is known to house many chicken farms, which supply large parts of
Syria with eggs and the attack apparently took place in one of the
chicken farms.
During past
months, the area has been the scene of intense clashes that have pitted
Syrian troops and their allies from the Lebanese militant Hezbollah
group against an array of Islamic insurgent groups, including the
Muthana Movement.
President Bashar Assad's forces
have been on a major push since Russia began its air campaign in Syria
on Sept. 30. Syrian troops and allied militiamen have launched ground
offensives in different parts of the country, including areas near the
capital, Damascus.
On Friday,
Zahran Allouch, the leader of the powerful rebel Army of Islam, was
killed in an airstrike that targeted the group's headquarters during a
meeting. A number of senior commanders of the Army of Islam and those of
the ultraconservative Ahrar al-Sham and the Faylaq al-Rahman groups
were also killed.
The Syrian
army claimed responsibility for the airstrike that killed Allouch,
although many among the opposition blamed Russia, which has been bombing
IS targets and other insurgent groups.
Allouch's
death was cheered by government supporters and the rival Islamic State —
a reflection of his role in fighting both sides in the Syrian civil
war.
His death may have
contributed — at least partially — to a delay in an agreed-on pullout of
thousands of militants and their families from neighborhoods on the
southern edge of Damascus.
Khaled
Abdul-Majid, a Damascus-based Palestinian official, said in a statement
Sunday that the agreement had stumbled following Allouch's killing.
Buses that were to transport the fighters from Yarmouk were supposed to
pass through Army of Islam-controlled Beir al-Qassab area in the
southeastern countryside of Damascus.
The
pullout, supposed to start on Saturday, was to involve mainly militants
from the Islamic State group who earlier this year overran the Yarmouk
area, which is home to a Palestinian refugee camp and has been hotly
contested and fought-over in the war, and two adjacent neighborhoods
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