Scores of pro-government fighters killed in ambush near Damascus: Monitor

An ambush by Syrian rebels on pro-government forces near Damascus this week killed 76 fighters, a monitor said on Saturday, in one of the deadliest attacks of its kind since the conflict began.

Militants from the powerful Jaish al-Islam (Army of Islam) rebel group opened fire last Sunday on around 240 government forces that were preparing to storm the opposition stronghold of Eastern Ghouta, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

The UK-based Observatory, which relies on a network of sources on the ground, said at the time of the attack, which it described as "the largest ambush of regime forces in the war", that 35 people had died.  

Director Rami Abdel Rahman on Saturday gave a new toll, documenting 45 pro-government fighters killed by gunfire and another 31 killed when landmines were detonated during the clashes. 

At least 100 remain unaccounted for, Abdel Rahman added.

Families of those killed or missing, many of whom come from the coastal province of Latakia, are demanding to receive the bodies of their loved ones, he told the AFP news agency. 

Jaish al-Islam is the strongest opposition faction in Eastern Ghouta, a large suburb of Damascus that is regularly bombarded by government forces.

The government has struggled to take back territory there despite air support from its ally, Russia, which has helped it regain swathes of rebel territory around the northern city of Aleppo and in the province of Latakia.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said in an interview released on Friday that he was determined to retake the whole country, even if it took a long time and incurred a "heavy price".

Russia sends new ship to Mediterranean

Russia on Saturday sent a new ship armed with cruise missiles to the Mediterranean, the navy announced on Saturday, with one Russian news agency reporting that the ship was set to join Russia's campaign in Syria.

The Zelyony Dol, a cruise missile-armed patrol ship in Russia's Black Sea fleet, was only built last year and recently took part in a "holding the coast" military training exercise in which its role was to support landing troops.

The RIA-Novosti news agency quoted a security source in Crimea, where the Black Sea fleet is based, as saying that the ship was bound for Syria and could take part in Russia's campaign to support the Syrian army.

"The goals of the ship are not public but considering that it is carrying long-range cruise missiles, its participation in the military operation should not be excluded," the source was quoted as saying.

Moscow is under fire for its bombing campaign in Syria, with the United States this week accusing it of undermining peace talks by helping in an offensive on the rebel stronghold of Aleppo.

Russia meanwhile warned against any ground intervention in Syria by countries in the US-led coalition with Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev saying it would unleash another war.

"Don't threaten anyone with a ground operation," he said on Saturday in Munich in a speech that lashed out at the West and talked of a "new Cold War".

The Russian navy used cruise missiles to strike Syria in October, launching them from the Caspian Sea, as well as in December, when they were launched from a submarine in the Mediterranean.