BEIRUT — Syrian government troops battled Al-Qaeda-linked rebels over a regime-held Christian village in western Syria for the second day Thursday, as world leaders gathered in Russia for an economic summit expected to be overshadowed by the prospect of US-led strikes against the Damascus regime.



Residents of Maaloula said the militants entered the village late Wednesday. Rami Abdul-Rahman, the director of the Britain-based Observatory for Human Rights, said the fighters included members of the of Al-Qaeda affiliated Jabhat Al-Nusra group.



Despite heavy army presence in the village, Abdul-Rahman said the rebels patrolled its streets on foot and in vehicles, briefly surrounding a church and a mosque before leaving early Thursday.



The rebels launched the assault on the ancient Christian village of Maaloula — which is on a UNESCO list of tentative world heritage sites — on Wednesday after an Al-Nusra fighter blew himself up at a regime checkpoint at the entrance to the mountain village. The village, about  60 km northeast of Damascus, is home to 3,300 residents, some of whom still speak a version of Aramaic, the ancient language of biblical times believed to have been spoken by Prophet Jesus (peace be upon him).



Heavy clashes between President Bashar Al-Assad’s troops and Nusra Front fighters persisted in surrounding mountains Thursday, according to the observatory, which collects information from a network of anti-regime activists.



Speaking by phone from a convent in the village, a nun told The Associated Press that the rebels left a mountaintop hotel Thursday after capturing it a day earlier. The nun said the frightened residents expect the militants to return to the Safir hotel and resume shelling of the community below. “It’s their home now,” the nun said. She said some 100 people from the village took refuge in the convent.



The 27 orphans who live there had been taken to nearby caves overnight “so they were not scared.”



The nun spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.



Meanwhile Thursday, a car bomb exploded outside a research center belonging to the Ministry of Industry in area of Soumariya near Damascus, killing four people and wounding several others, a government official said.



In Damascus, three people were injured when several mortar shells hit two residential neighborhoods, the state news agency SANA reported. Rebels fighting to topple Assad have frequently fired mortars in the capital to disrupt life there that the regime tries hard to portray as normal and detached from the fighting raging around the country.



In the northern province of Aleppo, a Syrian surgeon working for an international aid group that supports doctors in war zones was killed.



Doctors Without Borders said in a statement Thursday that the 28-year-old surgeon, Muhammad Abyad, was killed in an attack. Abyad, whose body was found Tuesday, had been working in an Aleppo hospital run by the group. — AP