5 civilians killed around Damascus Palestinian camp

Five civilians were killed in heavy fighting around a Palestinian refugee camp in the Syrian capital on Tuesday as rebels withdrew from a northwestern town after a night of clashes, a watchdog said. Four of the civilians were killed in shelling and the fifth by a sniper as battles raged between troops and rebels near the Yarmuk refugee camp in south Damascus, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. In Idlib province in the northwest, the army drove rebels out of Mastuma, just south of the provincial capital, with the support of a "special operations battalion," a military source told AFP. Displaced residents said troops stormed the town during the night, clashing with rebels and executing a number of residents. They said snipers were deployed throughout the town and troops stationed in the nearby ruling Baath party camp, which the Observatory said was turned into a military detention centre in summer 2011. The camp is a strategic target because it contains the largest concentration of tanks in the area and sizeable stores of weapons and ammunition, Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman said.Also in Idlib province, rebels shot down a helicopter as it was headed towards the Taftanaz military airbase, which remains under siege by the jihadist Al-Nusra Front and Islamist Ahrar al-Sham groups, the Observatory said. Troops still have a stranglehold on Idlib city but most of the province, which borders key opposition backer Turkey, is in the hands of insurgents. In eastern Syria, a civilian cargo plane was hit while landing at Deir Ezzor military airport as clashes raged nearby, the Observatory said. Activists said they suspected the aircraft was carrying munitions for the beleaguered troops defending the base. The rebels now control large swathes of northern and eastern Syria and half of second city Aleppo, with the remaining isolated army outposts under rebel siege. The United Nations estimates more than 60,000 people have been killed since the revolt against President Bashar al-Assad's rule erupted in March 2011.