LATEST: Footage — Insurgents With Chinese Red Arrow (HJ-8) Anti-Tank Missiles
It was only two weeks ago, following the Syrian military’s re-capture of Qusayr near the Lebanese border, that media were declaring an imminent “regime offensive” to claim all of Syria’s largest city Aleppo, split between Government forces and insurgents since July 2012.
The offensive — based on little more than a pro-regime newspaper and the assertions of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights — never materialised. Instead, one major media outlet on Sunday was proclaiming an “insurgent offensive” near Aleppo.
That too is an exaggeration, but it did point to a spike in the ongoing battle. Dramatic footage highlighted a Saturday car bomb, reportedly planted by the Ahrar al-Sham faction and killing 12 regime soldiers. Videos showed a large offensive on the Minegh airbase, the Syrian army’s last major military base in Aleppo Province and besieged for months, with insurgent claims that brigades were inside the complex.
The Minegh airbase clashes also indicated that, while international supporters continue to debate whether to openly supply heavy weapons to the insurgency, insurgents are already using some of the arms — probably courtesy of Saudi Arabia — to take out regime tanks. One video posted yesterday showed insurgents inside the airbase using Russian Konkurs anti-tank missiles to knock out one of the regime’s Russian-made T-72 tanks.
Latest Updates, From Top to Bottom
Footage: Insurgents With Chinese Red Arrow (HJ-8) Anti-Tank Missiles
This footage, uploaded on Monday, purports to show insurgents in Aleppo using HJ-8 “Red Arrow” anti-tank missiles.
Russia Slams Friends Of Syria Decision To Send Weapons To Insurgents
Russia’s Foreign Ministry has criticized a decision by the Friends of Syria to send weapons to Syrian insurgents.
In a statement issued Monday, the Foreign Ministry said:
The intentions to render unlimited military support to the opposition in the Syrian Arab Republic that were declared in Doha and that are already being implemented in reality are totally contradicting the objectives of a fast political settlement in Syria.
Footage: Insurgents Use LAW In Manegh Airbase
Footage posted today on the Facebook page of Liwa Al Fateh shows insurgents — named as the Liwa Al Fateh assisted by the Liwa Al Al Tawhid — using what is clained to be a LAW (light anti-tank weapon) to hit regime tanks in the Minegh Airbase.
What exactly is this weapon? Is it a M72 variant (for example the Turkish HAR-66?) Who supplied it and when?
[UPDATE: A reader, via Twitter, informs us that the weapon is an RPG-22. In February, EA reported on the insurgents’ use of both RPG-22s and M-79 rocket launchers — of Croatian origin — apparently supplied by foreign backers.]
Syrian National Coalition: Let Us Represent Syria At “Friends Of Syria” Meetings
The Syrian National Coalition on Monday called on the Friends Of Syria — Western and Arab nations and Turkey who support the opposition against Bashar Al Assad — to allow them to attend future meetings as an official representative of the Syrian people.
The call came after ministers from the 11 core members of the group met in Doha on Sunday to discuss the situation in Syria.
The Syrian Coalition said that they welcomed “the decisions of the Friends of Syria to support the revolution” and called for a transitional period “that excludes a role for Bashar Al Assad.”
Insurgents and Government Strike Deal to Convert Wheat Into Flour
Oliver Holmes and Alexander Dziadosz of Reuters write about an arrangement between insurgents and the regime in Idlib Province:
Rebels control most of the wheat fields but have no way to grind the grain into flour. The government has the flour mill, but can’t get enough wheat to supply it.
The two worked out a deal. Every week, the rebels deliver tens of thousands of tons of wheat to the mill in Idlib city. The government grinds it down, takes a cut, and sends it back.
Wajdi Zaydu, an opposition activist working with Abu Hassan on an administrative council in Salqin that a new provincial governor was more open to communications with insurgents, fostering the deal.
Fighting In Aleppo: Battle Of Al Qadisiyyah & Liberation Of Al Rashidin Neighborhood
Footage showing insurgents claiming to have taken parts of neighborhoods in western Aleppo as part of the offensive named the Battle of Al Qadisiyya.
As EA noted on Saturday, the name of the battle is significant, reflecting the increased involvement of Iranian-backed Lebanese Shia group Hezbollah. It is taken from the Battle of Al Qadisiyyah between the Arab Muslim army and the Sassanid Persian army, fought in Qadisiyya, Iraq in 636 during the first period of Muslim expansion. On the final day of the battle, Rostam was killed, signaling a Persian defeat.
This footage from Sunday shows insurgents claiming to have captured around 75% of the Al Rashidin neighborhood (see map below for location).
This video shows the Tawhid Brigade in Al Rashidin in Aleppo on Monday, en route to the battle front. One of the cars flies a black flag:
This next video is footage of the same brigade, also from Monday. The footage shows the same car with the black flag — here revealed to be a Jabhat al Nusra flag — as from the video above:
This video, posted by the Islamic City of Aleppo Brigade, shows a “citizen journalist” interviewing an insurgent, who describes elements of the battle. The video is branded “Battle of Al Qadisiyya”.
There have been a number of videos posted in which insurgents make statements ahead of going out to fight in the battle, including this from Sunday which includes a statement on the liberation of the Al Rashidin neighborhood:
Footage: Fighting In Aleppo
Scud Missile Hit On Ma’arat Al Artiq, Nr Kafr Hama
As fighting continues in and around Aleppo, here is footage from Monday showing a Scud missile attack on the village of Ma’arat Al Artiq, just west of Kafr Hama, in Aleppo’s northern suburbs.
Clashes In Ashrafiya Neighborhood, Aleppo
Footage of insurgents using mortars to attack regime strongholds in Ashrafiya, Aleppo, which has seen particularly fierce clashes in the past several days.
Footage of FSA snipers deployed in Ashrafiya on Monday:
Rights Group: Women Activists Testify To Detentions, Abuses At Hands Of Syrian Regime
New York-based rights group Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Monday accused Syrian military and regime forces of detaining and sometimes torturing female opposition activists and their relatives.
HRW said they had interviewed 10 Syrian women, including eight activists who had been detained, all of whom said that security forces and “shabiha” had subjected them to abuse and even torture.
The opposition activities in which the eight women said they had engaged in included peaceful demonstrations, creating opposition posters and providing humanitarian aid, HRW said.
According to HRW, the women said that the abuse included “electric shocks, keeping them in stress positions, and using metal rods, wires and nightsticks to beat and torture them.” Two of the women said they had been raped by their captors at the Military Intelligence Branch in Tartous and the Air Force Intelligence Branch in Mezze, Damascus.
One of the women interviewed, 35-year-old “Fatmeh”, who helped transport Syrian army defectors from Homs to Deraa, gave the following testimony of her treatment during a 15-day detention at Military Intelligence Branch 215 in Damascus, in March 2012:
One day it would be by electricity, the next by shabeh [being hung from the ceiling by one’s wrists with feet dangling or barely touch the ground]. The torture marks are still present. I would lose consciousness with the electricity… [T]hey were hitting me on my lower legs below my thighs and on my back. They tortured me until my body started bruising … Two men took me and carried me to the toilet because I couldn’t walk.
Claim of Mass Killing in Mazraa
Activists are claiming that more than 50 people were killed on Sunday when regime forces, aided by Hezbollah, raided the village of Mazraa.
The activists said the victims were shot in the village, south of Aleppo, and the bodies were then burnt and thrown into wells as houses were razed.
Casualties
The Local Coordination Committees claim that 136 people were killed on Sunday, including 72 in Aleppo Province” — “most of them in Mazraa” — and 36 in Damascus and its suburbs.
The Violations Documentations Center records 64,482 deaths since the start of the conflict in March 2011, an increase of 135 from Sunday. Of the dead, 49,511 are civilians, a rise of 67 from yesterday.
