LATEST: Video — Insurgents Claims Shootdown of Jet in Qalamoun Region

In a shift of rhetoric on Thursday, Syria’s President Assad pointed towards a long-term struggle with the insurgency and the Islamic State.

In recent weeks, the Assad regime has been declaring the imminence of victory; however, Assad’s statement to troops on Army Day focused more on an ongoing struggle:

Our war with terrorism is a war of destiny and existence where there is no space for any mildness….We are today determined, more than any time before, to resist projects of division and colonial sedition which target Syria and the whole region.

Because we reject compromising our causes or abandoning our rights, we should not depart from our principles…there is no relinquishing of our rights and there is no retreat from defending the Homeland.

Assad saluted those citizens who supported the military “against the Takfiri terrorism to go ahead towards victory and restore security and stability to every bit of the Homeland’s soil”.

In winter and spring offensives, the regime took territory between Damascus and the Lebanese border and advanced near Aleppo, threatening to cut off insurgents in Syria’s largest city. It also negotiated ceasefires in some insurgent-held areas near Damascus and forced the evacuation of insurgents from almost all of Homs.

However, in the last month, insurgents have gained more ground in southwest Syria and are pressing regime forces in the northwest. This week they have advanced within a few kilometers of Hama city and a nearby military airport.

And the Islamic State, breaking an effective non-aggression arrangement with the Assad regime, has won victories against the Syrian military in northern and eastern Syria as well as occupying a gas field in the center to take it out of production.


Video: Insurgents Claims Shootdown of Jet in Qalamoun Region

Insurgents claim they have downed a Syrian jet in the Qalamoun region of western Syria.

Video shows the jet in the distance with a vapor or smoke trail as insurgents celebrate:

Video: Insurgents Blow Up Regime Checkpoint in Idlib Province

Insurgents demolish a regime checkpoint in Frikka in Idlib Province in northwest Syria:

The insurgency is continuing to press regime forces on a front from Khan Sheykhoun north to Ariha, having cleared many checkpoints since the spring. The Syrian military is now facing isolation in its two remaining major bases at Wadi ad-Daif and al-Hamidiya.

Map: The Insurgent Advance on Hama

Map of the latest military situation in Hama Province, with insurgents within a few kilometers of Hama city and its military airport (insurgent control in green; regime control in red) — EA sources have confirmed the accuracy:

HAMA MAP 31-07-14

(h/t @archicivilians)