REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, BEIRUT - Forces loyal to Syria's president killed at least 175 opposition members, most of them foreigners, in an ambush in insurgent-held eastern outskirts of Damascus, state media said on Wednesday.

The attack was led by the Lebanese Shi'ite group Hezbollah, which had joined the government in a increasingly sectarian conflict that is pulling in fighters from across the region and destabilizing Syria's neighbors, said activists. Lebanon's Al Manar television, which Hezbollah operates, broadcasted images of dozens of bodies of men strewn along a rural road running through open fields near Otaiba, a town in the Eastern Ghouta area outside Damascus.

It said the opposition were ambushed as they tried to leave the area to join fighting in other regions. But there were few other details on the attack and none of the reports said when it happened. The ambush would be a significant advance for President Bashar al-Assad's efforts to cement his hold of the capital and surrounding roads, if the scale of the casualties is confirmed. 

Syria's conflict began in March 2011 with street demonstrations demanding democratic reform, but turned into an armed uprising after security forces used violence to quell the protesters. Around 140,000 people have been killed in three years of fighting, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a monitoring group opposed to Assad.

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