JNN 24 July 2013 Damascus : Many Palestinian refugees have joined the Syrian Army in its fight against the foreign-sponsored militants at the Yarmouk refugee camp near the capital Damascus.

Yarmouk camp is home to the largest Palestinian refugee community in Syria. The camp turned into a flashpoint area in Damascus when unrest broke out in the Arab country in 2011.

But now, in a bid to secure their home community, Palestinian volunteer fighters along with the Syrian Army fight the militants and have made significant gains.

“We are trying to regain control of the camp and regain their houses and pushed them (militants) outside the camp,” a Palestinian refugee told a Press TV correspondent on Sunday at the camp.

“I cannot show my face because there are terrorists inside the camp and I have family members,” he added.

“You can see the destruction caused by the terrorists,” he said pointing towards the bullet holes in the walls. “No one would such cause destruction to their own house; so, these people are not from the camp.”

According to the Press TV correspondent at Yarmouk Camp, the battle in the camp is a very complicated task and there are many reasons for that. It is the closest point the militants have to Damascus, and they will not relinquish it easily.

In addition, refugees are still going back to check on their houses in the once-densely populated area, and not to forget narrow streets of the camp with high buildings next to each other.

Fighting in Yarmouk camp is taking place from one building to the other and from one room to the other, making it a very difficult.

Palestinian volunteer fighters have been advancing into the camp slowly, facing the militants who have turned every building and every street into a bunker.

The frontlines are so close that either side can only whisper not to be heard while traveling in a maze of apartments that allow them to travel for hundreds of meters and maybe kilometers without setting a foot on a street.

Syria has been gripped by deadly unrest since 2011. According to the UN, more than 90,000 people have been killed and millions of others displaced in the violence.

Damascus says the chaos is being orchestrated from outside the country, and there are reports that a very large number of the militants are foreign nationals.

The Syrian government says the West and its regional allies — especially Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey — are supporting the militants.

The Syrian Army killed at least 75 insurgents over 24 hours in battles for control of the capital Damascus, a monitoring group with close links to the militants said on Monday, one of the deadliest single-day tolls for foreign-sponsored fighters in the 2-year-old conflict.

The death toll, reported by the Britain-based Observatory for Human Rights, included 49 rebels killed in an ambush in Damascus’ northeastern suburb of Adra early on Sunday. The group said an elite Republican Guard unit attacked the rebels as they were trying to push into the capital, and that the government commander leading the operation also died in the ensuing gunbattle, AP reported.

The group relies on reports from spies inside Syria. The Syrian state news agency SANA also reported the ambush, without giving a casualty figure.

Damascus and its suburbs have been a key battlefield for over a year, with militants trying to push into its center from strongholds in the suburbs. Some of President Bashar al-Assad’s most reliable units, including the Republican Guard and the 4th Division commanded by his younger brother Maher, are charged with its defense and have been trying to flush out rebels from its environs.

The Observatory reported that another 17 rebels died in fighting Sunday in clashes in Damascus neighborhoods of Qaboun and Jobar, while another nine were killed in clashes that have raged in the suburbs of Daraya, Harasta and Douma.

Syria has been gripped by deadly unrest since 2011. According to the UN, more than 90,000 people have been killed and millions of others displaced in the violence.

Damascus says the chaos is being orchestrated from outside the country, and there are reports that a very large number of the militants are foreign nationals.

The Syrian government says the West and its regional allies — especially Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey — are supporting the militants.

The militants from a number of countries have been crossing into Syria to fight against the government of Assad, contributing to an international effort to destabilize the Arab country.

Several international human rights organizations say the foreign-sponsored militants have committed war crimes in Syria.

The Syrian troops have recently conducted successful clean-up operations across the country, inflicting heavy losses on the rebels.

The Syrian Army’s push against the militants rattled their foreign sponsors.

Syrian Information Minister Omran al-Zoubi said on June 26 that Saudi Arabia is trembling with fear because of the Syrian Army’s recent successes against the militants.

In a meeting with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry in Jeddah, Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal insisted on June 25 that the militants in Syria must be armed with anti-aircraft and anti-tank weapons.

Zoubi said that the Saudi weapons and money is the main reason behind bloodshed in Syria, adding that Faisal “is lost in the Syrian blood.”