Nearly 90 Syria Rebels Killed in 48 Hours

Nearly 90 rebels were killed near the Syrian capital over the past 48 hours, a watchdog said Monday, as fighting raged ahead of possible foreign military action against the regime.

At least 29 of those killed, among them non-Syrians, died in an army ambush Monday in Adra, northeast of Damascus, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

The group, which relies on a network of activists, doctors and lawyers on the ground for its information, said security forces were also among those killed and wounded, without giving numbers.

State news agency SANA, meanwhile, said an army unit had killed "mostly" members of the Islamist group al-Nusra Front, which has many foreign recruits.

Adra, an industrial city 35 kilometers (20 miles) from Damascus, is a key entry point to Eastern Ghouta, an agricultural area where rebels and regime forces have frequently clashed.

Rebel-held Eastern Ghouta was one of the Damascus suburbs targeted in an alleged chemical weapons attack on August 21 that caused worldwide outrage and triggered calls for U.S.-led military retaliation against the regime.

The Observatory said another 46 rebels had died on Sunday around the town of Rouhayba, also northeast of the Syrian capital, in air raids and fighting that came when regime forces retaliated for an attack on army positions.

Another 11 rebels died on Sunday in different areas near Damascus, it added.

Elsewhere, at least eight people, including five children, were killed when regime forces shelled the town of Tal Aran in northern Aleppo province, the Observatory said.

The group says that more than 110,000 people have been killed since Syria's conflict broke out in March 2011, including at least 40,146 civilians.

Hundreds were reportedly killed in the alleged August 21 poison gas attack that some Western and Arab countries have blamed on Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime -- a claim it denies.

U.S. President Barack Obama decided on Saturday that he would seek the approval of Congress before launching any military strikes on Syria over the attack.

That pushes back any intervention until next week at the earliest, as lawmakers return from summer recess only on September 9.

Syria's U.N. representative Bashar al-Jaafari has asked the United Nations to try to "prevent any aggression" against the regime, insisting that his government has "never used chemical weapons."

But Washington says it has proof Syria used sarin gas and France on Monday said there was "massive use of chemical agents" in the attack and that only the regime could have been responsible.