U.S. pledges more aid to Syria as clashes continue DAMASCUS, Aug. 7 (Xinhua) -- The United States on Wednesday announced an additional 195 million U.S. dollars in humanitarian assistance to Syria as at least six soldiers and 70 rebels were killed during clashes and blasts in the war-torn country. The fresh aid came on the occasion of Eid al-Fitr, or Feast of Breaking the Fast, an important religious holiday celebrated by Muslims worldwide that marks the end of the holy month of Ramadan, a month of fasting. The new U.S. aid covered food and medical supplies in Syria as well as food vouchers and ready-to-eat meals for some 245,000 refugees sheltered in Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey, Iraq and Egypt, the State Department said in a statement. It brought to a total of more than one billion dollars in U.S. humanitarian aid to Syria since the country was plunged into conflict in March 2011. In an interview published Tuesday by the Wall Street Journal, CIA second-in-command Michael Morell said the war in Syria poses the greatest threat to U.S. security because of the risk of the government falling and the country becoming a weapons-rich haven for al-Qaida. Also Wednesday, Russia accused extremists in Syria of taking revenge for their poor military position out on civilians. Moscow strongly condemned a Tuesday attack on the outskirts of Damascus that kills at least 18 people,including three children, urging all countries and sides having influence on the "radicals and extremists" in Syria to demand an immediate stop of violence and acts of terrorism. Meanwhile, the Syrian army on Wednesday ambushed a group of armed rebels who were trying to sneak into a suburb of the capital Damascus, killing 70 of them, the pan-Arab al-Mayadeen TV reported. A Syrian army colonel and a major were also killed during the ambush, according to Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Separately, Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said a prisoner was killed and a civilian was injured when a mortar shell struck the central prison of Adra. Adra is now a main battleground in Damascus due to its strategic location, which connects rebel-held areas in the countryside of Damascus with each other. In the northern province of al-Qamishli, the Observatory said that the al-Qaida-linked Nusra Front captured several Kurdish civilians and took them to an unknown location as the tense battles are raging between the Kurds and the Nusra fighters in the Kurdish-dominated areas in northern Syria. Nusra Front members have been behind the bulk of the deadly explosions that rocked Syria over the past 28 months. Also on Wednesday, an explosion rocked Qatana, a Damascus suburb, killing at least six government soldiers. The blast was also believed to be staged by Nusra Front.