LATEST
- Reports: Syrian Army Fighting With Pro-Assad Militias in Homs
- Rebels Move Closer to Syrian Military’s Last Camp South of Idlib City, Shell Regime Enclave to North
- Rebel Offensive Tries to Cut Damascus-Quneitra Highway
- Video: Rebels Pursue Islamic State Fighters in Quneitra in Southwest
- Videos: Aftermath of Airstrikes from Aleppo to Homs to Daraa Provinces
- Fighting and Differing Claims Continue Over al-Ghab Plain in Rebels’ Idlib-Hama Offensive
- Jordan Hurt by Trade Loss After Rebels Take Last Regime Border Crossing
THURSDAY FEATURE
The Growing Alliance for a Southern No-Fly Zone
With rebels advancing on fronts throughout Syria, the externally-based Syrian National Coalition and “revolutionary forces” have begun discussions on a political resolution of the four-year conflict.
The groups met last weekend in Istanbul. The Coalition announced agreement on five points, including “no solution without the toppling of the Assad regime, with all its symbols and security organs: “Assad and his ruling elite should have no role in the transitional phase and the future of the country.”
The participants — representatives of local councils in Syria as well as Coalition officials and the rebel delegation — also agreed on “work to achieve the highest degree of coordination between the political and military forces of the opposition, and to protect the independent national decision-making in coordination and cooperation with the allies of the revolution and its friends”.
A call was issued to “all Syrians, wherever they are and whatever their affiliation, to join the revolution and to participate in all efforts to halt the killing and destruction, and stand in the face of any plans to split the country or support the terrorism of the regime”.
Among the rebel groups was Jaish al-Islam, a leading faction in the Islamic Front bloc. Earlier this month Zahran Alloush, the faction’s leader, traveled to Turkey for the first time for discussions.
Other groups involved were Ajnad as-Sham Islamic Union, as-Sham Corps, as-Sham Rebels Battalions, the Homs Corps, al-Yarmouk Army, Ansar al-Islam Front, al-Ababil Army, Istaqem Kama Umert Rally, the 24th Infantry Brigade, al-Habib al-Mustafa Brigades, the 96th Brigade, the Jund al-Badr Rally, the “313 Brigades”, Amoud Horan Brigade, al-Motaz Bellah Brigade, the First Corps, the United South Brigades, Fursan al-Haq Brigade and Brigade 111.
The local councils represented included the Free Judiciary Council and those from the provinces of Homs, Idlib, Aleppo, Damascus, and Hama.
The participants asserted:
The unlimited support provided by Tehran and Moscow to the Assad regime in all fields cannot and will not save the regime.
The deterioration of its political institutions, the disintegration of its military machine and the collapse of its economic conditions have reached a point where the regime has surrendered to the will of the Iranian and Iraqi militias, Hezbollah militia, and the foreign mercenaries Assad brought to protect him.
Rebels Move Closer to Syrian Military’s Last Camp South of Idlib City, Shell Regime Enclave to North
Rebels have put more pressure on the regime’s last military camp, Mastoumeh, south of Idlib city with the capture of nearby territory. Footage from the Free Syrian Army’s Sham Legion:
The regime’s other camp, Qarmeed, fell to rebels last weekend after a month-long assault following the opposition’s capture of Idlib city.
To the north of Idlib, Ahrar al-Sham is shelling regime militias in the enclave of al-Fu’ah. The rebel faction says the attacks are in retaliation for regime airstrikes near Idlib city, including the town of Binnish.
Rebel Offensive Tries to Cut Damascus-Quneitra Highway
The Southern Front rebel bloc has announced an offensive attempting to cut the highway from Damascus to Quneitra Province in southwest Syria.
The Free Syrian Army’s 1st Army, said on Monday that the “Battle of the Cutting of Joints” had begin with attacks on the town of Sasa, about 15 kilometers (9 miles) northeast of the Golan Heights demarcation line between Syria and Israel, with shelling of base of the the Syrian Army’s 68th Brigade and the Maqrousa area.
The 1st Army said the operation was also to relieve pressure on rebels trying to take the 137th Regiment base in Khan al-Shih, 12 km (7 miles) north of Sasa on the highway to Damascus.
The Quneitra Hawks Brigade of the Syrian Army defending against an attack on Madinat al-Ba’ath:
Video: Rebels Pursue Islamic State Fighters in Quneitra in Southwest
Rebels are continuing operations to clear Islamic State fighters from Quneitra Province in southwest Syria, near the demilitarized zone with Israel.
Footage of rebels firing on Islamic State vehicles, southeast of Quneitra city (see map):
Fighting began last weekend whan an Islamic State affiliate, Saraya al-Jihad, attacked. Rebel groups. including Ahrar al-Sham and Jaish al-Islam, counter-attacked and said they were “cleansing the area“.
See Islamic State Affiliate Fighting Rebels in Quneitra Province in Southwest
Footage has been posted of rebels inside a house that served as a base for Islamic State operations.
Reports: Syrian Army Fighting With Pro-Assad Militias in Homs
More information has been circulated about Wednesday’s fighting in Homs between the Syrian army and pro-Assad militias.
Citizen journalist Hadi al-Abdallah spread the news with reports from sources in Homs of the clashes after militiamen were accused of car bombings, theft of gold, and kidnappings for ransom. There were even claims of a plot to assassinate Homs Governor Talal al-Barazi.
Abdallah said at least two people were killed in the fighting.
Local media activist Thaer Khalidiyeh adds, “A joint force of the regime’s security apparatus, supported by two BMP and Shilka armored vehicles stormed overnight the headquarters of…National Defense Forces groups in the Zahraa area.” He said there were “a number of fatalities”.
Khalidiyeh expanded on the claim of an assassination attempt on Homs Governor al-Baraki, saying regime troops found a car rigged with explosives.
He asserted that tensions rose when inhabitants of Zahraa and a nearby Armenian quarter began to complain about the actions of the NDF members.
Mohammad al-Homsi of the Homs Media Center said the disputes were exacerbated when bodies of Syrian troops, killed in the rebel offensive in Idlib Province and in battles in Aleppo, began arriving in Homs.
Homsi claimed NDF members in Homs have not been paid for months, and have resorted to violence to extort money from local residents, including bombings which allow them to steal from shops “as soon as the doors are blown off”.
Videos: Aftermath of Airstrikes from Aleppo to Homs to Daraa Provinces
Syrian airstrikes continue throughout the country — several civilians, including children, have been killed in attacks on Mare’ in Aleppo Province, near the frontline of fighting between rebels and the Islamic State:
Footage from Rastan in Homs Province:
Fire and destruction in Daraa city in southern Syria:
The Local Coordination Committees reports confirmation of 69 people killed in Syria on Wednesday.
Jordan Hurt by Trade Loss After Rebels Take Last Regime Border Crossing
Lebanon’s Daily Star reports on the damage to Jordan’s trade after rebels took the Assad regime’s last border crossing in March.
The website says the Naseeb crossing is still closed after the rebel advance:
Until recently, [a free trade] zone had been a bustling area of warehouses and factories that employed several thousand Jordanians, said Nabil Roman, head of the investors’ association for such zones in Jordan. Since the rebel takeover, investors have pulled out.
Roman said the zone was doing business worth hundreds of millions of dollars. “It’s gone,” he said.
This week, trucks transported goods and raw materials out of the zone as entrepreneurs tried to salvage their inventory.
“There is no future here, it’s finished,” said Iraqi businessman Wathiq al-Abadi, 45, as he oversaw the dismantling of a $10 million soft drink factory he set up in the zone six years ago.
Jordanian trade has also been affected by Islamic State bombings of crossings with Iraq. “Iraq is closed, Syria is closed, only the (route to the) Gulf is left,” said truck driver Firas Zoabi.
Fighting and Differing Claims Continue Over al-Ghab Plain in Rebels’ Idlib-Hama Offensive
Countering pro-Assad claims of regime advance in the al-Ghab Plain — south of the town of Jisr al-Shughour, captured by rebels last weekend — the opposition has put out footage from the village of Ziyarah (see map):
Pro-Assad accounts have now moved to the claim that the Syrian military has pushed back by taking the village of Safsafiyah.
Rebels have taken a series of villages in al-Ghab, especially along the eastern side of the plain, since they began their offensive across southern Idlib and northern Hama Provinces last week.
Syrian forces are trying to reclaim control of village to establish a route across the plain as an alternative to the M4 highway, the vital route between southern Idlib and Latakia in western Syria, which is at risk of being cut by rebels.
Even pro-Assad activists implicitly acknowledge the threat as they proclaim victories, noting that fighting in the village of Joreen is “a half kilometer from the Syrian Government’s final supply route to [Idlib] province”.
The regime supporters also claim counter-attacks near Jisr al-Shughour, asserting that Syrian forces have al-Fawrou and are fighting close to Ghaniyah and Ishtabraq, captured earlier this week by the rebels.
Fighting between Qarqur and al-Msheek in the northeast of the plain (see map), near a thermal power plant: