DAMASCUS: Syrian security forces have killed three suspected "terrorists" in clashes at the Palestinian refugee camp in Yarmuk, south of Damascus, private Dunia television reported on Thursday. "A clash took place between security forces and presumed terrorist elements in the Yarmuk camp, and three of them were killed and one wounded," Dunia said, quoting witnesses. "One of the men, who was wearing an explosives belt, was overpowered by the Syrian security forces," the television added, saying calm had returned to the camp.

The report did not say when the incident occurred.

Other television reports said that Iraqis and Saudis were among the suspected terrorists.

About 424,650 Palestinian refugees are registered in Syria. Half of them live in 13 camps spread around the country.

The Yarmuk camp, about 15 kilometers south of the capital, is the largest with around 112,550 residents.

On September 27, a car bomb exploded near a Shiite shrine in southern Damascus, killing 17 people and wounding 14 others, in one of the deadliest attacks in a dozen years.

The car packed with 200 kilograms of explosives blew up near a security checkpoint on a road to the Damascus international airport at an intersection leading to the Sayeda Zeinab neighborhood. All the victims were civilian passers-by.

Sayeda Zeinab is popular among Shiites from Iran, Lebanon and Iraq who go there on pilgrimage to pray at the tomb of Zeinab, a grand-daughter of the Prophet Mohammad.

The blast was the worst to rock Syria since February, when Hizbullah commander Imad Mughnieh was killed by a car bomb in Damascus.

The attack also came days after the Lebanese authorities announced that Syria had sent reinforcements to the border between the two neighbors.

While the deployment prompted accusations from some Lebanese politicians that Damascus was planning an intervention in their country, Syria said that the move was for internal security reasons and to combat smuggling.

In August, Syria confirmed the assassination of top army General Mohammad Suleiman, who was described by Arab media as having been the government's liaison with Hizbullah.

"Suleiman, an officer of the Syrian Arab Army, has been assassinated," Butheina Shaaban, an adviser to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, said on August 6, adding only that an investigation was under way.

The Saudi-owned pan-Arab daily Al-Hayat said Sleiman was a senior officer "in charge of sensitive files and closely linked to the Syrian top brass." - AFP