A car bomb exploded at the main entrance to Syria’s rebel-held Bab al-Hawa border crossing into Turkey on Tuesday, a monitoring group said.

Syrian rebels, including jihadists linked to Al-Qaeda, have taken control of the historic Christian town of Maalula, north of Damascus, a watchdog and a resident said on Sunday.

Syrian anti-regime activists say government shelling has killed 16 people, mostly rebels, near Damascus. The attack near the Syrian capital comes as Secretary of State John Kerry lobbies European allies to back Washington’s proposed military action against the Syrian regime.

UN experts investigating a poison gas attack in Syria left the country on Saturday, paving the way for the United States to lead military strikes to punish President Bashar al-Assad.

Syrian state television said soldiers found chemical weapons on Saturday in tunnels that had been used by rebels, deflecting blame for a nerve gas attack that killed hundreds this week and heightened

Lebanese officials said Saturday the death toll from a devastating twin car bombing outside two mosques in the northern city of Tripoli on Friday has risen to 47.

Air strikes by the Syrian military killed at least 20 people in the northwestern province of Latakia overnight, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights group said Saturday.

Syrian troops attacked rebel positions outside Khan al-Assal on Wednesday as they seek to recapture the northern town at the centre of rival chemical weapons accusations, a watchdog said.

A car bomb on Tuesday rocked Beirut’s southern suburbs, a stronghold of Lebanon’s Shiite Hezbollah movement, injuring at least 53 people, government and military sources said.

Syrian troops backed by tanks and warplanes on Wednesday fought to repel an attack on the central prison in Aleppo after rebels blew up its walls in suicide car bombings, a watchdog said.