Syria army \\\'gains ground\\\' along Lebanon border

Syrian troops made fresh gains in the strategic Qalamun area near the Lebanese border Saturday, seizing two villages from rebels, a military source said. "The army took control this morning of the villages of Ras al-Maarra and Flita, after bombing the last groups of armed terrorists there," the source said. President Bashar al-Assad's troops, backed by fighters from Lebanon's Shiite movement Hezbollah, have been waging a crushing battle against rebel positions in Qalamun, north of Damascus, since November. They scored a strategic victory in mid-March when they overran Yabrud, a former opposition bastion in the area, according to AFP.