Violent Clashes in Maliha as Eight Pro-regime Soldiers Killed in Eastern Ghouta

The Free Syrian Army clashed with regime forces in the town of Maliha in Rural Damascus, while eight pro-regime soldiers were killed by a landmine explosion on the road to Damascus Airport in Eastern Ghouta. Random mortar shells fell on Jaramana, while regime forces carried out artillery shelling on Khan Al Sheeh. Rebels captured a regime checkpoint in the town of Beit Jen in Rural Damascus, while regime forces carried out artillery shelling on the outskirts of Jeiroud, killing two people and causing material damage. Activists said that the lawyer Abdul Hadi Awad died torture in the prisons of the Assad regime in Damascus. Awad was a human rights activist and director of the Syrian Democratic Institute and head of the office of legal and human rights in the Syrian Democratic Forum. He was arrested by regime forces on the Syrian-Lebanese borders on December 8, 2013 while on his way to Beirut. (Source: Syrian Coalition + LCC)