Syria army locates infiltration tunnels near Damascus

Soldiers of the Syrian army have located tunnels through which militants infiltrated into a region near the capital Damascus, Press TV reports.

The soldiers found the tunnels in the Jobar district, two kilometers northeast of the Old City walls, on Wednesday.

Hundred of militants are said to have used the tunnel to cross into the region and as a gateway to flee the army’s strikes.

The militants, who were from radical groups such as the so-called Ajnad al-Sham Islamic Union, aimed at breaching the parameter the Syrian army has enforced in the area.

“Early on Wednesday, our scouts detected an infiltration of several terrorists using two tunnels. They wanted to stop our quick advance in Jobar, but the vigilant surveillance neutralized their attack,” said a Syrian soldier.

The Takfiri militants also planted explosive devices to destroy a building where Syrian snipers and scouts were stationed.

“We killed many of them, but they managed to take some of the dead bodies with themselves,” said another soldier, adding that the forces detonated the tunnel and recovered over 25 dead bodies, some belonging to foreign militants including two from Saudi Arabia, according to forensic analysis.

Meanwhile, at least five people were killed in two separate terrorist attacks against residential areas in the western city of Homs.

Several others were also injured after the militants fired rockets on the areas.

In the northwestern city of Aleppo, an aid convoy has been sent to civilians as part of relief efforts coordinated by the Syrian government and the United Nations.

Syria has been gripped by deadly violence since 2011.

The Western powers and their regional allies — especially Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Turkey — are reportedly supporting the militants operating inside Syria.

More than 191,000 people have been killed in over three years of fighting in the war-ravaged country, says the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), calling the figure a probable “underestimate of the real total number of people killed.