Syria president approves law to penalise illegal entry

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad approved on Tuesday a law penalizing illegal entry to Syria to years of imprisonment, as Syrian troops have fully retaken control over another strategic central town near the borders with Lebanon, local media said. Whoever enters Syria illegally will be either imprisoned from one to five years or fined by five to ten million Syrian pounds ( 25,000 to 50,000 U.S. dollars), according to the state-run SANA news agency. The law was approved just one day after the Syrian parliament approved a draft law that had toughened the penalty against illegal recruitment of minors in the current fight in Syria to life imprisonment. The penalty could reach execution if any of the children die, according to SANA. The Syrian government has for long accused foreign countries of facilitating the flow of armed rebels into Syria and charged that the armed opposition groups recruit children in their fight against the government troops. On ground, the Syrian army has reportedly taken full control over the central strategic town of Talkalakh, just two weeks after regaining the key city of al-Qussair in the same central region. Little has been known about the Talkalakh battle, but it came as part of the Syrian army's resolve to fight what it called " armed terrorist groups" across Syria. The government brands the rebels as terrorists as their ranks have been overwhelmed with fighters affiliated with al-Qaida. In Aleppo, meanwhile, the army troops repelled rebels' attack against the Minigh airbase, killing 20 of the assailants, the pro- government al-Khabar TV said. The rebels have unleashed several attacks against the base over the past months but for no avail. On the opposition side, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that the government troops heavily bombarded the rebel-held suburb of Jobar east of the capital Damascus, adding that the rebels fired multiple mortar shells at a government troops' checkpoint in al-Kabbas area in Damascus and caused unknown losses. The Observatory also said that a mortar shell slammed a building in the Damascus' district of Adawi, injuring a woman and her son. In the Harasta suburb, the Observatory said the rebels gunned down a college student on the suburb's highway, adding that the student was the son of a military officer. Activists' reports also reported government troops shelling on rebellious areas across the country as well as clashes in different areas. Such incidents have become daily routines in the country's 27-month-old conflict.