People gathering at the site of a car bomb in al-Arin neighborhood in the Damascus countryside. Photo: AFP

(VOVworld) - The head of Syria's air defense forces Gen Hussein Ishaq was killed in fighting near Damascus, announced Syrian officials on Sunday. General Ishap was reported seriously wounded when rebels attacked an air defense base near the town of Mleiha and later died. Syria’s air defense headquarters is located in a fiercely contested area of the current fighting around Damascus. For more than a month, the Syrian army, backed by the militant Lebanese Shia group Hezbollah, has been fighting to force the rebels out of Mleiha and regain control of this area. The town is still under rebel control.