Car bomb, clashes kill over 30 near Syrian capital

               
Syrian rebels blew up an army checkpoint outside Damascus on Saturday and more than 30 combatants from both sides died in the blast and ensuing clashes, a monitoring group said.               
The pro-opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 15 rebels and at least 16 soldiers were killed.            

Elsewhere near the capital, Syrian forces tried to storm the suburb of Mouadamiya, which the army has blockaded for months, leading to a rising death toll from hunger and malnutrition.               
The British-based Observatory said the checkpoint explosion, near the suburbs of Mleiha and Jaramana, was detonated by a suicide bomber from the al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front.             

Nusra supporters on Twitter, however, said the bomber had intended to blow himself up in the car, but instead got out before setting off the explosives inside. They said rebel forces had captured the checkpoint hit by the car bomb and were battling to take a second one nearby.                
Syrian state television reported the blast but gave no death toll, saying only that several people had been killed or wounded in a "terrorist bombing".            

The Observatory, which has a network of activists across Syria, said Syrian fighter jets retaliated by striking nearby opposition-held areas such as Mleiha.                

Video uploaded by activists showed a huge column of smoke billowing up from the scene and the sound of fighter jets streaking overhead could be heard.            

Rebels also fired rockets into Jaramana, a suburb held by the government, according to the Observatory. It said the air force carried out four strikes on adjacent rebel-held districts.               

OPCW inspectors:         

Syrian TV released on Saturday footage of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) members inspecting what is claimed to be a Syrian chemical site. The date of recording and the place where it was filmed were not released.           

The inspectors have been tasked with overseeing the destruction of Syria's chemical weapons in the middle of a civil war.         

Their mission was borne out of a deadly chemical attack on opposition-held areas of outer Damascus on 21 August.            

The OPCW inspectors, who are from the Netherlands-based chemical weapons watchdog, have around nine months to complete their mission.              

The US and its allies accuse the Syrian government of responsibility for the attack, while Damascus blames opposition fighters.                 


AP/REUTERS