LATEST: Photos — The Destruction in Liberated Kobane
FRIDAY FEATURES
Exclusive: Interview with the Islamic Front, The Largest Bloc in the Insurgency
Developing: Insurgents Begin Major Offensive To Take Ariha, South of Idlib, in Northwest
Analysis: Assad Regime Admits Failure of Russian “Peace” Talks
Insurgents waging an offensive in Daraa Province, south of Damascus, shot down a regime warplane on Thursday.
The jet was downed near Bir Qasab, a village held by the Islamic State. The insurgents say that they took action to prevent it from bombing opposition-held areas in the province.
The Syrian air force has been carrying out a sustained campaign of bombing, trying to hold back insurgent advances on the ground. However, the Local Coordination Committees reported only one death in the province on Thursday.
Islamic State supporters claimed credit for the shoot-down, featuring a claimed photograph of the dead pilot and his identity card. However, reliable sources confirmed that the insurgents targeted and hit the warplane, which crashed in the jihadist-controlled area.
The incident comes days after the insurgent offensive took two regime bases and villages near the main highway from Damascus to the Jordanian border.
See Syria Daily, Jan 26: Insurgents Celebrate Victories Across Country
A video by the Southern Front celebrating the capture of the Brigade 82 anti-aircraft base:
Photos: The Destruction in Liberated Kobane
Bulent Kilic of AFP has published a vivid set of photographs of the destruction in Kobane, the Kurdish center in northern Syria freed from a four-month Islamic State assault on Monday:
Insurgents: Agreement Ends Conflict Between Factions of Jabhat al-Nusra and Harakat Hazm
The Levantine Front, an insurgent bloc in northwest Syria, claimed on Thursday that the Islamist faction Jabhat al-Nusra and the US-backed Harakat Hazm have agreed to end months of conflict.
The two factions clashed last November when Harakat Hazm, promoted by Washington as a “moderate” insurgent force, tried to check Jabhat al-Nusra’s campaign against another group, the Syrian Revolutionary Front. Jabhat al-Nusra swept aside Harakat Hazm’s attempt and defeated the SRF, forcing its leader Jamal Ma’arouf to flee to Turkey.
Reports of tension continued, but on Thursday the Levantine Front posted the written agreement to reconcile.
Statement by the #LevantineFront about what happened.
#Syria #Aleppo pic.twitter.com/rEa46R5wNj
— archicivilians (@archicivilians) January 30, 2015
Prime Minister: “Kurds Are Deeply-Ingrained Component of Syrian Society”
Days after the Kurdish victory over the Islamic State in Kobane in northern Syria, the Assad regime has tried to display that it is fully supported by the Kurds.
State media features a Thursday meeting between Prime Minister Wael al-Halqi “with a Kurdish delegation which comprised Kurdish figures”.
The Prime Minister declared that Kobane, which was completely freed on Monday after a four-month assault by the Islamic State, is “dear to the hearts of all Syrians”.
According to State news agency SANA, the Kurdish delegation said they are “an inseparable part of the Syrian society, an affiliation…they cherish most,” and pledged allegiance to the Assad regime and army.
