FRIDAY FEATURE

Assad “Open to Dialogue” With US…But Then Calls It A “War-Monger”

UPDATE 1615 GMT: Local sources update that “rebels are advancing steadily from all sides toward the city center” of Idlib.

One summarizes:

It’s slow advance with house-to-house fighting, and no longer the quick gains as in the first days of the offensive.

Still, the regime cannot hold out long since they cannot resupply their units on the frontlines beyond the stocks already in the city.

Residents greet opposition fighters moving into their neighborhood:

UPDATE 1415 GMT: The Islamic Front claim that the last supply route from Kufraya and al-Fuah in the north to Idlib city has been cut:

Rebels consolidated their gains near and in Idlib in northwest Syria on Thursday, taking total control of industrial areas in the east of the city and almost cutting off regime forces.

Opposition forces took all but one regime checkpoint to the north by Thursday afternoon, blocking the road to al-Fu’ah, and almost all checkpoints to the west. To the south, fighting continued near the ring road in Mastoumeh and Fayloun, with rebels threatening to cut the major route — and thus reinforcements — from Aleppo and Latakia.

See also Syria Daily, March 26: Rebels Move Into Parts of Idlib City

The rebel Jaish al-Fatah operations room produced a map showing claimed successes:

JAISH AL-FATAH IDLIB MAP

Intense footage of the battle in the east of the city:

Rebels move into the complex of the Syrian Networks and Telecommunications Company in northeast Idlib:

Inside the grain silos and olive oil plant:

Sounds and flashes of the fighting last night:

With the battle for key areas of the city looming, the regime tried to bolster morale with images of the Governor of Idlib Province inside Idlib and claims that reinforcements had made it through the rebel blockade:

Syrian warplanes also carried out strikes on areas taken by the rebels:

State news agency SANA insisted, from a “military source”, “The army foiled an attempt by terrorists of different organizations, including Jabhat al-Nusra, to infiltrate Idlib….The army units are hunting down the fleeing terrorists around the city after they had killed many of them.”

The offensive is being waged by thousands of fighters in a coalition of rebel factions, under the newly-formed Jaish al-Fatah operations room, and the Islamist group Jabhat al-Nusra.

Idlib, with a pre-war population of 165,000, is the capital of Idlib Province adjacent to Turkey. It would be the largest city to fall to the opposition since Raqqa in summer 2013.

A demonstration in the Damascus suburb of Saqba in support of the offensive: