Three people were killed Thursday evening in a shootout between Syrian forces and gunmen in Yarmok, eight kilometers (five miles) south of Damascus, home to about 43,000 Arabs who left Israel in 1948 and their descendants, according to Syria's Dunia Television.

The Syrian forces reportedly opened fire on the gunmen, apparenty Sudanese and Iraqi members of a terror group. One of the gunmen was apparently wearing an explosives vest.