Syria's state media and an opposition activist group said many civilians are feared dead in a town near Damascus after parts of it were captured by Islamic rebels, according to the Associated Press.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said it has documented the names of 19 civilians killed by hard-liners over the past two days in Adra, northeast of Damascus.

The Observatory says the civilians were minority Alawite and Druse.

Syrian Minister of Social Affairs Kinda Shammat described on Friday what happened in Adra as a "massacre." Shammat told Syrian TV that the army was now carrying out an operation in the area, an industrial section of the town.