Damascus suburb residents clash with rebels -monitoring group

Armed residents of the Damascus district of Douma clashed with a powerful rebel force on Saturday, a monitoring group said, in a rare instance of infighting in the area.         

The fighting started on Friday in the eastern suburb after locals attacked storehouses of an organisation close to the Army of Islam, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.         

The British-based Observatory, which gathers information from a network of sources inside Syria, said guards exchanged fire with the attackers, wounding several.           

Fighting broke out again on Saturday between the Army of Islam and residents backed by other rebel groups, the Observatory said. Douma is largely surrounded by forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad.           

Infighting has weakened the rebel's three-and-a-half-year-old fight against Assad, but the bulk of the clashes have been in the north and instances of such confrontations in the south have been relatively rare.           

A U.S.-led coalition has been carrying out air strikes against Islamic State militants in the north since September. 

In the Syrian border town of Kobani, scenes of widespread destruction could be seen on Saturday (November 15), following U.S.-led coalition air strikes targeting Islamic State militants and ongoing battles between IS and Kurdish fighters.       

Kobani has been encircled by the Sunni Muslim insurgents for more than 50 days.       

Large plumes of smoke could be seen billowing into the air, while sporadic explosions and gunfire could be heard from the embattled town.       

At a location on the Turkish-Syrian border, heavily damaged buildings could be seen.      

Weeks of U.S.-led air strikes have failed to break their stranglehold, and Kurds are hoping the arrival of the peshmerga, welcomed by Washington, will turn the tide.       

The battle for Kobani - known in Arabic as Ayn al-Arab - has become a test of the U.S.-led coalition's ability to stop Islamic State's advance.