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Syrian government troops regained control of a historic mosque in Aleppo after pushing rebel troops back from the area, a human rights group reported Sunday.
The London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that government troops recaptured the mosque from rebels after "intense clashes" nearby and in several other neighborhoods, some of which were damaged by government artillery.
The Syrian opposition had reported the 12th-century Umayyad Mosque was set afire during heavy fighting Saturday, with one opposition activist accusing government troops of setting the building ablaze. The head of the U.N. cultural agency UNESCO had urged all parties to protect the mosque, warning it was "severely endangered" by the battle for Syria's commercial capital.
Syria's state-run news agency said government troops had killed numerous "terrorists" around the city during Sunday's fighting and defused a truck bomb that had been loaded with 3 tons of explosives near a major intersection.
Aleppo is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, dominated by an ancient citadel. Portions of its medieval marketplace burned in September, about a month into the battle for the city.
Opposition reports 220 deaths
Opposition activists from the Local Coordination Committees of Syria reported 220 new deaths in the grinding conflict on Sunday, including an estimated 100 left at a state hospital outside Damascus.
Video of the scene distributed online showed the bodies piled into what appeared to be a refrigerated truck outside the hospital in Mouadamiyeh, in the Damascus suburbs. Alexia Jade, an opposition activist in Damascus, told CNN that many of the bodies were found with their hands tied behind their backs and showed signs of torture.
The remains were quickly removed by members of a pro-government militia, she said.
CNN could not independently confirm the authenticity of the video.
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