Assad's forces try to beat back rebels
2013-02-08 18:04
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Syria
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Amman - President Bashar Assad's forces fought back on
Friday in an effort to retake sections of the Damascus ring road from rebels
trying to tighten their noose around the capital, opposition activists said.
Rebel fighters based in the eastern Ghouta region broke
through defensive lines two days ago, capturing parts of the road and entering
the neighbourhood of Jobar, 2km from main security installations in the heart
of the city.
Assad, battling to crush a 22-month-old revolt in which
60 000 have died, has lost control of large parts of the country but his
forces, backed by air power, have so far kept rebels away from the centre of
Damascus.
World powers fear the finely-balanced conflict - the
longest and deadliest of the uprisings that spread through the Arab world two
years ago - could envelop Syria's neighbours, further destabilising an
explosive region.
Heavy fighting was reported at the Hermalleh junction on
the ring road just south of Jobar, which had been taken over by the rebels.
Fighter jets fired rockets around Jobar, Qaboun and Barzeh districts, the
sources said.
Captain Islam Alloush of the Liwa al-Islam rebel unit
said opposition fighters did not intend to stay on the ring road and that even
if they withdrew from the junction, their new control of surrounding areas
rendered the road useless as an army supply line.
"They are fighting off the regime forces but they do
not intend to stay at Hermalleh if their losses mount. The objective of this
operation is a slow advance toward Damascus," he told Reuters.
Snipers
Alloush said opposition forces had deployed snipers in
Jobar, where army roadblocks had been overrun or surrounded.
"Control of the Harmalleh junction is changing hands
between the rebels and the army. By attacking the ring road, the rebels have
linked Jobar with the eastern Ghouta," said a university student living in
Jobar. The eastern Ghouta is a rebel-held expanse of suburbs and farmland
adjoining the capital.
Activists said 46 people were killed on Thursday, mostly
from army shelling. There were no immediate reports of casualties on Friday.
With a supply line open to military bases on the coast,
Assad's core forces from his minority Alawite sect are still based comfortably
in the Qasioun Mountains on the northwest edge of Damascus, from where they
have been shelling the suburbs.
Rebel commanders say they have made mistakes in the past,
entering Damascus and other cities without cutting Assad's supply lines first.
Fawaz Tello, a veteran opposition campaigner well
connected with rebels in Damascus, said the operation was part of a slow
encroachment by rebels on the capital.
"Even if the rebels withdraw from the ring road, it
will become, like other parts of the capital, too dangerous for the regime to
use it," said Tello, speaking from Berlin.
"We are witnessing a 'two steps forward, one step
back' rebel strategy. It is a long way before we can say Assad has become
besieged in Damascus, but when another main road is rendered useless for him
the noose tightens and his control further erodes."
