Assad activists accuse Hezbollah of treason due to rebels’ advances near Damascus

Pro-Assad activists have accused Hezbollah of treason Sunday due to the disobedience of Syrian Army orders what cost large number of causalities within regular army  in eastern Damascus suburbs .

Assad’s Servant, well-known facebook page loyal to Bashar al-Assad, said more than 60 soldiers of regular army have been killed today due to the disobedience of Syrian Army orders by Hezbollah amid news of rebels’ advances in 6 towns east Damascus, according to Zaman Alwasl’s reporter.

Heavy clashes between Syrian troops and rebels trying to break a government siege in the suburbs of Damascus have killed at least 160 fighters over two days, activists said Sunday, AP said.

Forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad have laid siege for months to rebel strongholds in the Ghouta area east of Damascus, preventing food, clean water, medicine and other supplies from entering in a bid to crush resistance.

The tactic, which activists said has led to famine, has helped government troops capture a string of rebel-held areas over the past month on Damascus’ doorstep.

The intense fighting in the eastern Ghouta area began on Friday when several rebel groups attacked government forces, according to the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and an activist based in Qalamoun. The activist spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of government reprisals, according to AP.

There was no word on the battle from government media.

Observatory director Rami Abdurrahman said the rebels were trying to open the road between Ghouta and the outside.

He said more than 160 fighters were killed Friday and Saturday, including nearly 100 rebels, most of them from al-Qaeda-linked groups, the Nusra Front and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.

Among the more than 60 fighters killed on the government side were 20 gunmen from the Iraqi Shiite Abu al-Fadl al-Abbas brigade, he said.

Abdurrahman also said that at least two Syrian media activists were killed as they covered the clashes in eastern Ghouta.

One of those was Ammar Tabajo, who provided information to many Western-based media outlets over the past three years, using the alias Mohammed Saeed. Abdurrahman and the Local Coordination Committees activist group confirmed Tabajo had been killed.

Tabajo played an instrumental role, particularly in the early phases of the uprising, as a source of information for the media, and was a rare activist who appeared regularly on Arab TV stations. He was one of the first to report on the Aug. 21 chemical weapons attack, going to makeshift clinics to observe the aftermath.