42 Syrian soldiers killed in Iraq during ambush near border

A CONVOY carrying Syrian soldiers that crossed into Iraq has been ambushed, killilng 42 Syrians and seven Iraqis.

SYRIA-CONFLICT-HOMS-BOMB

A CONVOY carrying Syrian soldiers that crossed into Iraq has been ambushed, with the fight resulting in the death of 42 Syrians and seven Iraqis.

Unidentified armed men ambushed the convoy that crossed into Iraq from the site of weekend fighting, army officers said.

The soldiers crossed into Iraq from the Yaarubiyeh border crossing, the scene of fighting on Saturday between rebels and troops loyal to President Bashar al-Assad, army Lieutenant Colonel Mohammed Khalaf al-Dulaimi told AFP.

The soldiers were first transported by the Iraqi authorities to Baghdad from the northern Nineveh province, which borders the crossing, and they were on their way back to be handed over to Syrian authorities on the border with Anbar province in western Iraq when the attack took place, Mr Dulaimi said.

Armed men attacked the convoy from two sides with mortar rounds, automatic weapons and mines, killing 42 Syrian soldiers and seven Iraqis. Eight Syrians and four Iraqis were wounded, and three vehicles in the convoy destroyed, he said.

Major Ali Juwair al-Dulaimi from Iraq's Anbar Operations Command confirmed the toll.

The attack comes after defence ministry spokesman Mohammed al-Askari said an Iraqi soldier was killed and three people including a soldier wounded at the Yaarubiyeh crossing in Nineveh province on Saturday in clashes between Syrian rebel and regime forces.

He also said four wounded Syrian soldiers were treated at an Iraqi hospital during Saturday's fighting.

Baghdad has pointedly avoided calling for the departure of Mr Assad, who is locked in a bloody civil war with rebels opposed to his regime, and has instead urged an end to violence by all parties.

But US officials have repeatedly called on the Iraqi government to halt Iranian flights to Syria via Iraqi airspace, which they say are transporting weapons to Mr Assad's forces.

A key Syrian opposition group meanwhile accused the Iraqi government on Sunday of intervening in Syria.

"After the Iraqi government headed by (Prime Minister) Nuri al-Maliki gave political and intelligence support to the Syrian regime... the Baghdad regime has moved on to a new level of intervention in Syrian affairs," said the Syrian National Council.

It charged that Baghdad was "attacking the Syrian people, their basic rights and their territorial sovereignty."

The deaths came as Syrian troops launched a major assault to capture rebel-held areas of the central city of Homs, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

At least 264 people were killed across the strife-torn country on Sunday, among them 115 regime soldiers, 104 rebels and 45 civilians, the Observatory said.

"This is the worst fighting in months and there are dozens of dead and wounded among the assailants," the Observatory said without giving further details.

Regular troops backed by pro-regime militiamen attacked the centre of Homs where rebels are holed up, including the Old City and neighbourhoods of Jouret al-Shiah, Khaldiyeh and Qarabees, it said.

Activists refer to Homs as the "capital of the revolution" as the uprising against the regime of President Bashar al-Assad was the most intense in the city of 800,000 residents before regime forces regained control of around 80 per cent of it.

Sectarian tensions also run high in the city. Some 65 per cent of its population are Sunnis, 25 per cent Alawites and around eight per cent Christians.

In the northern city of Raqa on the Euphrates river near the Turkish border, fighting was reported between rebels and soldiers around the Dalla roundabout and the centre for immigration and passports, the Observatory said.

The regime army launched air strikes on Raqa's central prison which was seized at the weekend by the jihadist Al-Nusra Front and other rebel groups, who then set free hundreds of inmates, the watchdog said.

Prior to the conflict Raqa was home 240,000 people, but more than 800,000 people have moved there to escape the daily violence elsewhere in the strife-torn country.

Hundreds of Syrian troops and troops have been killed in recent weeks mainly in the battle for a police academy in the northern province of Aleppo, with insurgents seizing control of most of the complex, the Observatory said.

"On Sunday, the highest number of troops and rebels combined were killed since the start of the conflict in Syria," Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP.

"We were able to document a death toll of 219 for fighters from both sides for Sunday alone, but we are certain the actual toll is even higher," he added.