Report: Suicide blast kills government soldiers in Damascus

A suicide bombing killed at least 16 Syrian government soldiers in a Damascus suburb Saturday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring organization reported.

The Observatory said a bomber from the group Jabhat al-Nusra carried out the attack while fighters tried to capture the key Tamico factory checkpoint between the rebel-held towns of Mleha and Jaramana. State news agency SANA said the blast wounded 15 people.

The attack triggered heavy clashes at the checkpoint.

"A suicide terrorist blew himself up inside a car bomb with big quantity of explosives in the surrounding of Tamico Co. for medical industries, injuring 15 citizens, the majority of them critical," SANA quoted an official as saying.

Jaramana is mainly populated by Christians and Druze, both of which are religious minorities, and residents are mostly loyal to President Bashar al-Assad.

Witnesses said clashes were continuing between rebels and government forces.

There were also reports of shelling in both Mleha and Jaramana, the Observatory said.

Rebels have previously targeted Jaramana with bombings and mortar rounds.

Assad has drawn support from Syria's ethnic and religious minorities, including Christians and members of his Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shia Islam.

The rebel movement is dominated by Sunni Muslims, who are a majority in Syria.

At least 100,000 Syrians have been killed in the country's civil war, now in its third year.

Al Jazeera and wire services