Syrian air force raids rebels near Damascus

The Syrian air force struck on Sunday a rebel's suburb east of the capital Damascus, activist groups said. The suburb of Subaineh was raided four times on Sunday, activists said, alleging that the strikes targeted residential buildings. But the account could not be verified independently. The area, about 10 km east of Damascus and home to about 300, 000 people, has recently emerged as a battlefield for the government troops and the rebels. On Friday, Syrian media accused the rebels of setting ablaze two major detergent factories in Subaineh. As the strikes was carried out, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights posted a video footage online, purporting to show one of the leaders of al-Qaida-linked al-Nusra Front in eastern Deir al-Zour region denouncing calls for a civil and democratic state in Syria and stressing that only Islamic flags would be raised in Syria. The brazen rhetoric came days after al-Qaida's wing in Iraq said al-Nusra was part of the global terror network, triggering worldwide controversy and fears that al-Qaida has capitalized on the Syrian crisis to fulfill its old dream of building an Islamic state in Syria.