More than 350 people have been killed since the weekend in violent clashes in Syria's southern Sweida province, a war monitor said Thursday, updating an earlier toll, reports AFP.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that since clashes erupted on Sunday, 79 Druze fighters were killed along with 55 civilians, 27 of them in "summary executions by members of the defence and interior ministries", while 189 defence and interior ministry personnel and 18 Bedouin fighters were also killed. Earlier, the monitor had said the death toll was 300.

The Observatory said the victims in Sweida included a media worker, identifying him as Hassan al-Zaabi.

The Syrian journalists' union in a statement said Zaabi was shot dead by "outlaw gangs" in Sweida province "while performing his professional duties", without saying whom he worked for.

The Britain-based monitor, which relies on a network of sources inside Syria, additionally reported 15 defence and interior ministry personnel killed in Israeli strikes in southern Syria.

MSH

At least 34 people, including two babies were killed when a contraband fuel depot exploded into flames in southern Benin near the border with Nigeria on Saturday.

According to Beninese Interior Minister Alassane Seidou, “a serious fire occurred in the town of Seme Podji. Another 20 people were seriously wounded in the incident.”

"I can't really give you the cause of the fire, but there is a large gasoline warehouse here and cars, tricycles and motorcycles come from morning to evening,” he added.

Nigeria is a main oil and gas producer where fuel smuggling is very common along its borders, particularly when the government maintains a subsidy to keep fuel prices low.

The majority of the victims were burnt and they could not be not be identified.

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