LATEST: Video — Insurgents Use Recoilless Gun to Eliminate Regime Tank in Mleha
State news agency SANA ignores the latest military developments, notably the insurgent assault in Idlib Province in northwest Syria, in favor of the headline “Syrians’ Support for Elections Grows More Ardent as the Countdown to Presidential Vote Starts”.
The article and photographs claim to show mass rallies for the June 3 vote, the Syrian Army, and President Assad, from the Damascus suburbs to Homs Province to Hama to Lattakia on the Mediterranean coast.
SANA assures, quoting an official of Assad’s Baath Party, “The upcoming elections represent the concept of enhancing democracy in Syria.”
Assad faces two nominal challengers in next week’s ballot.
Video: Insurgents Use Recoilless Gun to Eliminate Regime Tank in Mleha
Insurgents destroy a regime tank in the battle for Mleha, east of Damascus:
Syrian forces have been trying for weeks to take Mleha, the gateway to insurgent-held areas of East Ghouta.
Chemical Weapons Inspectors Come Under Attack in Hama Province
A convoy of chemical weapons inspectors and United Nations staff, travelling to the site of a chlorine gas attack in Hama Province, were attacked this morning.
The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons said all team members are safe and well and had returned to their operating base.
The team was going to Kafrzita, where Syrian aircraft have dropped chlorine canisters inside barrel bombs on several occasions since April 11.
Claims are circulating that an improvised explosive device was detonated near the regime-held town of Tibet al-Imam as the convoy was passing.
The Foreign Ministry said one of four vehicles was hit by an explosive charge, and 11 members of the team were briefly “kidnapped” when two of the other vehicles were stopped.
Local activists said the regime staged the attack to prevent investigators from reaching the site. Akram Mahmoud, an activist in Kafrzita, said insurgents in the area had formed a committee to receive the inspectors and accompany them to clinics. As they were waiting, they heard an explosion and contacted the OPCW-UN team, who said they were leaving the area.
Footage of the convoy:
OPCW Director-General Ahmet Üzümcü said, “Our inspectors are in Syria to establish the facts in relation to persistent allegations of chlorine gas attacks. Their safety is our primary concern, and it is imperative that all parties to the conflict grant them safe and secure access.”
Regime Continues Barrel-Bomb Response to Insurgent Victories in Northwest Syria
The regime has continued retaliatory airstrikes after insurgents eliminated the last checkpoints in southern Idlib Province over the weekend.
The Syrian Revolutionary General Council said barrel bombs were dropped on Khan Shaykhoun, the key town in the area lying on the Damascus-to-Aleppo highway.
Domestic Opposition Group Calls for Delay in Presidential Election
The Popular Front for Change and Liberation, a domestic opposition group, has called for the delay of June 3’s Presidential election because most Syrians will not be able to participate in them.
Senior PFCL members are visiting Moscow, where they met Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Monday.
“We urge to delay presidential elections. Most Syrians will not be able to participate in them,” Qadri Jamil said. However, he addded, “We do not call for boycotting them.”
On Monday, Lavrov urged the PFCL “to actively participate in the political process, with a constructive contribution to ensure an end to violence in Syria, broader practice of local truces, and the settlement of humanitarian problems of the affected population”.
Videos: The Insurgent Victory in Northwest Syria
Insurgents with armored vehicles from the overrun Salaam checkpoint, the last regime position near Khan Shaykhoun in southern Idlib Province:
Opposition fighters attacked from Khan Shaykhoun to Ariha over the weekend, seizing the Khazanat base and checkpoints.
See Syria Daily, May 26: Insurgents Take Regime Bases in Idlib Province
Syria Feature: Major Insurgent Offensive in Idlib Province
Footage from the Khazanat battle:
Fars News Turns Insurgent Advance in Syria Into Regime “Victory”
The outlet of the Revolutionary Guards, Fars News, has a unique perspective on this weekend’s insurgent offensive in northwest Syria.
Opposition fighters have overrun regime bases and checkpoints throughout Idlib Province, threatening to cut off the Syrian military’s land routes from Damascus to Aleppo and from Idlib to Latakia on the Mediterranean coast.
Fars sees none of this. Instead, it reports:
The Syrian army targeted insurgents’ concentration centers and hideouts in several areas in Idlib countryside, killing and wounding tens of rebels.
A military source told FNA on Monday that army soldiers targeted the militants’ hideouts in Jabal al-Arbaeen in Idlib, Northwestern Syria, killing and wounding a large number of them.
FNA dispatches from Syria said that over 50 Takfiri terrorists, many of them foreigners, were killed in the army’s operations in Idlib countryside and their bodies are still left on the battlegrounds.
The source said that Jabal al-Arbaeen is now witnessing heavy fighting between the Syrian army and the terrorists, adding that the governmental forces have acted successfully in the region and are now advancing towards al-Fanar restaurant.
(cross-posted from Iran Daily)
