Syrian rebels recapture villages near Assad stronghold

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Free Syrian Army fighters enter a cave after what they said was a barrel bomb dropped by forces loyal to Syria's President Bashar al-Assad near Tal Meleh village in Hama countryside May 12, 2015. Picture taken May 12, 2015. REUTERS/Mohamad Bayoush
Free Syrian Army fighters enter a cave after what they said was a barrel bomb dropped by forces loyal to Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad near Tal Meleh village in Hama countryside May 12, 2015. Picture taken May 12, 2015. REUTERS/Mohamad Bayoush

Insurgents have regained control of several villages in northwest Syria from government forces and have advanced beyond them, edging closer to a coastal stronghold of President Bashar al-Assad, a monitoring group and other sources said on Sunday.

The insurgents launched a counter-offensive after government forces, backed by allied militant groups, last week recaptured the villages on the Sahl al-Ghab plain, which lies close to the city of Hama and is crucial to the defense of coastal mountains that are the heartland of Assad’s minority Alawite sect.

The insurgents’ ‘Army of Fatah’ alliance includes al Qaeda’s Syrian wing, the Nusra Front, the Islamist Ahrar al-Sham group and other factions.

On Sunday, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the Islamist fighters’ counter-offensive had forced the Syrian army to withdraw from such villages as Mansoura, Zeyara and Tal Waset toward bases northwest of Hama city.

Seven government warplanes and helicopters carried out 80 strikes on the villages located on the plain, the Observatory added.

A source close to the Syrian government confirmed the rebel advances in the area.

The insurgents have made gains in several parts of Syria in recent months, including capturing most of Idlib province to the northeast of the Sahl al-Ghab plain.

Last month Assad alluded to military setbacks when he said the army had been forced to give up some areas in order to hold onto more important ones

A quarter of a million people have died and more than 10 million driven from their homes in Syria’s four-year civil war that has left large swathes of the country in the hands of Islamic State militants.

REUTERS

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19 responses to “Syrian rebels recapture villages near Assad stronghold”

  1. nagy_michael2 Avatar
    nagy_michael2

    And Assad will be holding out in a house 2 by 2 eventually his fate.. where is Iran mighty powers and all the money they put into Syria.. useless and all that didn’t help out at all. like i Said send the Garbage from Lebanon to the Borders to block these crazies from entering lebanon.

    1. Michaelinlondon1234 Avatar
      Michaelinlondon1234

      Faced with the true evil that is the USA. The only chance for justice is for someone, Any one to start nuking the USA…

      1. “The only chance for justice is for someone” – Justice for who and for what reason?

        “Let Him Who is Without Sin Cast the First Stone”, “Judge Not Lest Ye Be Judged”.

        You must have a miserable existence if all you need to be happy is your hope for an Armageddon.

        You do see that this muslim vs muslim and sect vs sect violence has been going on for about 1400 years. This is really nothing new to grasp. Before that the Jews and then the Christians where on their own killing spree, and many civilizations before them. Humans just love to kill each other and we will always find a reasons, be it religion, money, power, etc, to use violence to justify the cause.

        Humans are a pitiful example for the word civilized.

        1. Michaelinlondon1234 Avatar
          Michaelinlondon1234

          Humans are a pitiful example for the word civilized
          So yes I do agree.

        2. MekensehParty Avatar
          MekensehParty

          Yet the only known civilizations are exclusively Human so far.
          Don’t put all humans in one bag. There’s those who built and organized, and there’s those who destroy and want to go back to the caves or trees.

          1. cook2half Avatar
            cook2half

            Google ‘Wow! signal 1977’, sure there’s more civilisations out there 🙂

          2. MekensehParty Avatar
            MekensehParty

            The Wow! signal is what an ET said when he read hind’s comments on this blog. The rest of what he said went into another direction but the whole sentence was: Wow! How stupid humans are! 😉

          3. cook2half Avatar
            cook2half

            LOL

      2. MekensehParty Avatar
        MekensehParty

        dude, you keep forgetting to take your pills…

  2. Michaelinlondon1234 Avatar
    Michaelinlondon1234

    More USA barrel bombs and slaughter. Complete and absolute none stop evil and lies.

  3. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad promised to prosecute his second cousin, Suleiman al-Assad that shot the Syrian army officer, as for “Al-Watan” referring to the relatives of the officer
    Colonel Hassan al-Sheikh was killed in the evening of 6 August. According to eyewitnesses, a relative of the head of state angered by
    the fact that the officer did not miss his car ahead in traffic, coolly
    shot el-Sheikh.
    This provoked mass demonstrations in the province, most of its population are Alawites. This same community is like Assad clan and killed Colonel. Demonstrators demanded that the authorities punish the killer.

    The unrest in Latakia, which is considered a support Assad clan is an alarm mode. Earlier,
    the Alawites were not against the government, fearing that in the case
    of overthrowing the Assad their communities that jihadists consider heretics,will be cut

  4. “Dzhabhat en Nusra” to cease hostilities against the IS near Aleppo

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