DAMASCUS (AFP) — Syrian security forces killed two suspected Iraqi "terrorists" and a policeman also died in clashes in a Palestinian refugee camp, private Dunia television said on Thursday.
"A clash took place between security forces and presumed terrorist elements in the Yarmuk camp, and two of them were killed and one wounded," Dunia said, quoting witnesses.
"A Syrian policeman was also killed," said the television, which is close to the government.
"One of the men, who was wearing an explosives belt, was overpowered by the Syrian security forces," the television added, saying calm had returned to the camp.
But it said that the two men killed in the clashes were "Iraqi citizens who were renting an apartment in Yarmuk camp."
Earlier Dunia reported that three suspected "terrorists" were killed in the clashes but it did not say when the fighting took place.
It had also said Saudis were among the presumed terrorists, but made no mention of that in its updated report.
About 424,650 Palestinian refugees are registered in Syria. Half of them live in 13 camps spread around the country.
Yarmuk camp, about 15 kilometres (nine miles) south of the capital, is the largest with around 112,550 residents.
On September 27, a car bomb exploded near a Shiite shrine in southern Damascus killing 17 people and wounding 14 others, in one of the deadliest attacks in a dozen years.
The car packed with 200 kilos (440 pounds) of explosives blew up near a security checkpoint on a road to the Damascus international airport at an intersection leading to the Sayeda Zeinab neighbourhood.
All the victims were civilian passers-by.
Sayeda Zeinab is popular among Shiites from Iran, Lebanon and Iraq who go there on pilgrimage to pray at the tomb of Zeinab, a grand-daughter of the Prophet Mohammed.
The blast was the worst to rock Syria since February when Hezbollah commander Imad Mughnieh was killed by a car bomb in Damascus.
The September attack also came days after the Lebanese authorities announced that Syria had sent reinforcements to the border between the two neighbours.
Syria said the move was for internal security reasons and to combat smuggling.
In August, Syria confirmed the assassination of top army general Mohamed Sleiman who was described by the Arab media as having been the government's liaison with Hezbollah.
"Sleiman, an officer of the Syrian Arab Army, has been assassinated," Butheina Shaaban, an adviser to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said on August 6, adding only that an investigation was under way.
The Saudi-owned pan-Arab daily Al-Hayat said Sleiman was a senior Syrian officer "in charge of sensitive files and closely linked to the Syrian top brass."
Copyright © 2009 AFP. All rights reserved. More »
