A high-level Syrian general has been killed during a battle with opposition forces in the eastern province of Deir Ezzor, according to state media.

Major-General Jameh Jameh was head of military intelligence in the province.

State media gave no immediate details on when, where in the province Jameh was killed, or how, but opposition forces forums said he died during clashes with fighters in the city of Deir Ezzor.

Rami Abdel Rahman, director of the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said initial reports suggested Jameh had been shot by a sniper in the city's Rashdiya district, but there was no confirmation.

The group also reported fierce fighting between regime troops and opposition forces in several parts of the province, including the city, which is the largest in eastern Syria.

Jameh was one of Syria's senior security officers in Lebanon during Syria's military deployment in the country between 1976 and 2005.

He was interrogated over the February 2005 assassination of Rafiq Hariri, the Lebanese politician, though he was not charged in connection with his death.

Many blamed the Beirut car bombing that killed Hariri on Assad's regime and the Lebanese group Hezbollah, which is allied to Assad and is now fighting alongside him in Syria against the opposition forces.

In 2006, the US Treasury Department announced it was blacklisting Jameh and another Syrian general for their role in supporting "terrorist groups" and over the presence in Lebanon.

He is believed to be from Jableh, a town in coastal Latakia province, a stronghold of the Syrian regime.

PHOTO CAPTION

An undated handout photograph distributed by Syria's national news agency SANA shows top-ranking general in Syrian military intelligence, General Jama'a Jama'a who was killed in Deir al-Zor city on October 17, 2013, in northeastern Syria.

Al-Jazeera