Cairo asks Syria to clarify Egyptian deaths

CAIRO - Agence France-Presse

Egyptian Foreign Minister Mohammed Kamel Amr . EPA Photo

Egypt's foreign ministry said on Tuesday that it has asked Syria to clarify circumstances in which three Egyptians were killed in fighting in Aleppo and Homs.
 
The ministry said it sent an "urgent message" to Damascus demanding an explanation for the death of the men, after Syria said one of them headed an armed group in rural Aleppo.
 
Syrian rebels have been joined by foreign fighters, some of them Sunni Islamist extremists, in their protracted insurgency against President Bashar al-Assad's minority Alawite-led regime.
 
The Assad regime estimated last month there are 5,000 foreign fighters involved in the conflict, which entered its 20th month this week and which activists say has cost more than 33,000 lives.