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Seven soldiers, including a colonel, were killed on Monday as an armed group ambushed a military bus in Daraa province in southern Syria, the private Sham FM reported.

The attack came after at least six army men were killed on Sunday in an ambush in a suburb of the Syrian capital Damascus, and another seven were killed on Saturday when anarmed group showered their bus with bullets in the countryside of Damascus.

Syria is witnessing a wide-scale military operation against armed men allegedly comprised of army defectors.

The head of the so-called Syrian Free Army, a group of alleged defectors who were given refuge in Turkey, has recently pledged to step up attacks against army bases across Syria.

Damascus said some 2,000 army and security personnel have been killed since the country's unrest began in March.

Meanwhile, Syria's al-Watan newspaper reported on Monday that the Syrian army was launching a "surgery operation" in Damascus' suburbs as rumors that Damascus was about to fall in the hands of the so-called Syrian Free army were sweeping TV channels.

Some Arab TV channels said on Sunday that the Syrian Free Army was 8 km from the capital Damascus and battles were raging at the Damascus International Airport, while some reports claimed that gunfire was heard all over Damascus.

Al-Watan said the rumors were nourished due to the government's silence over the Syrian army's movements "in order to preserve the safety and security of the armed forces that are precisely fighting a battle in Damascus' surroundings to cleanse it from armed groups that have been heavily deployed in villages and towns".

The paper quoted some residents of al-Ghouta, where most of the clashes between the army and the alleged armed groups took place recently, as saying that the army was able to impose its control over the areas in eastern Ghouta and was waging fierce but precise battles to drive militants out of their hideouts and to arrest them.

The residents, according to the paper, said the armed groups were equipped with different kinds of weapons and were planting explosives on roads to halt the approach of the army.

Meanwhile, the official news agency SANA said a brigadier general and a law-enforcement member were injured when two explosive devices planted by armed groups went off on the Balyon-Kamsafra road in the northern province of Idleb on Sunday.

It added that an armed group broke into the telecommunications establishment in Idleb and stole 17 cars from the garage.

Also on Sunday, Amal Issa, an agricultural engineer working at Homs Agriculture Directorate, was assassinated by an armed group, SANA said.

（中國日報網英語點津 Julie 編輯）

About the broadcaster:

Emily Cheng is an editor at China Daily. She was born in Sydney, Australia and graduated from the University of Sydney with a degree in Media, English Literature and Politics. She has worked in the media industry since starting university and this is the third time she has settled abroad - she interned with a magazine in Hong Kong 2007 and studied at the University of Leeds in 2009.