PRESS REVIEW
Featuring ground-to-air missiles, Islamist insurgents advancing in Aleppo, Idlib and in the province of Latakia, the stronghold of Assad.
We expected a rebel attack from the south, via Jordan, with logistical support Saudi. But after losing last week Yabroud and Krak des Chevaliers, the response of the anti-Assad finally came from northern Syria through Turkey and with new weapons supplied by Qatar.
Against the attack spans three provinces. First that of Aleppo, where the regime has lost neighborhoods Layramoun and Mount Chwayhné, which dominates the west of the city, and saved many casualties. This weakens the insurgents advanced Zahra government district in north-west of Aleppo, where the center formidable intelligence services of the air force, the rebels seek to take for months. To the west, in Idlib province, the army has given fifteen checkpoints near Khan Cheikhoun, and the regime has no more as military bases and Wadi al-Deif Hamadiyé, surrounded and supplied by air. Finally, last week, three Islamist groups – the al-Front Nosra, Cham al-Islam and Ansar al-Islam – attack the province of Latakia, hitherto relatively untouched by the fighting. This region, Alawite majority, confession of President Bashar al-Assad, is one of the main strongholds of the regime.
The scheme not yet threatened Monday, insurgents captured the station Kassab, one of the last official crossing points still in the hands of the regime along the border with Turkey. They also took control of the Armenian village of Kassab six kilometers from the border, and fighting is still raging in neighboring hamlets. In response, the Air Force launches explosive barrels in the area near the Jabal Turkman, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, based in London, which has recorded at least 170 deaths on both else. Damascus accuses Turkey of having lent a hand to the jihadists. Sunday Ankara aviation shot a Syrian plane, which had violated Turkish airspace, according to the Turkish authorities, was denied by Damascus. “The rebels want to cut the road between the Armenian enclave Kassab in Latakia, where a calm reigns three years since the conflict began,” decrypts the researcher Fabrice Balanche.
Tuesday, the rebels would have seized the port Samra, at the Turkish border. This would allow them to have their own point of maritime supplies. This offensive, which does not threaten the regime owes nothing to chance. “We received weapons that Qatar had promised including surface to air missiles,” says an official of the opposition. Through recent deliveries, Doha seeks to strengthen the capacity of action groups that are close to him, to the detriment of those sponsored by rival Saudi. It is also to show that when the Arab summit held in Kuwait, dedicated to the Syrian drama, rebellion is far from having said its last word. And a few days after the bittersweet about Robert Ford, “Mr. Syria” at the State Department, who just resign. “Assad will remain in power in the medium term, and the opposition has failed to reassure the minority Alawite Assad to loose it” regretted Mr. Ford on his return to the United States.
Georges Malbrunot
LE FIGARO
Stéphane © armenews.com