Damascus, June 15, 2014 (AFP) – The Syrian army rebels resumed Sunday the city Armenian majority Kassab (north-west), near a strategic border crossing with Turkey, she announced in a statement.

“Units of our armed forces, in collaboration with the forces (paramilitary) national defense restored the safety and security Kassab this morning,” said the military statement, confirming earlier data by television information State.

The Syrian Observatory of Human Rights (OSDH) were reported Saturday evening that “most of the fighters of al-Nosra Front and Islamic brigades had retreated Kassab, leaving behind a small number of fighters.”

Sunday, the NGO said the army had entered the city to the rebels since March 21, but fighting continued.

“The regime’s troops came to Kassab but have not taken the entire city. Fighting still oppose soldiers and rebels who remained, “said AFP Director of OSDH, Rami Abdel Rahman.

The withdrawal of most of the rebels came after “the army, supported by the Lebanese Shiite Hezbollah fighters, was able to take the hills surrounding Kassab,” said Abdel Rahman.

“This put the rebels in the line of sight of the army and Hezbollah,” said he added.

“There was a lack of supply and an advanced highly experienced Hezbollah and the Syrian special forces fighters,” said Abdel Rahman yet.

“The insurgents did not want to be besieged Kassab” by the army, as was the case in several localities rebels brought to their knees by the army in three years of war. “They preferred to withdraw.”

Constantly bombarded by regime forces, the border post Kassab was important for the insurgents who were carrying their wounded in Turkey, an ally of the opposition.

The Syrian regime accused Ankara of aiding the rebels seize the city, whose inhabitants Armenian majority have fled their homes since March.

Beirut, June 14, 2014 (AFP) – The rebels and their allies of al-Nosra Front (Syrian branch of Al-Qaeda) withdrew Saturday “Kassab”, a border city of Turkey they had conquered in March , reported the Syrian Observatory of Human Rights (OSDH).

“Most fighters of al-Nosra Front and Islamic brigades withdrew from Kassab, leaving behind a small number of fighters,” said the OSDH.

Government forces for their part sent tanks into neighboring villages, signaling an imminent conquest of the city by the army. This retreat occurred while “regime’s troops supported by men of Hezbollah and other Arab and Asian fighters had advanced (in the neighboring village) Nabaein” according to the OSDH.

The information has been confirmed by opposition activists claimed that the fighters of Al-Nosra and rebel brigades had retreated to the rebel strongholds in the region of Jabal al-Akrad, near Kassab.

The Armenian community of Kassab is strategic because it is located near the single border crossing with Turkey in the province of Latakia, a stronghold of the Alawite community belongs President Bashar al-Assad.

When the border post Kassab fell to rebels in March, he was the last checkpoint on the border with Turkey still operational in the hands of the regime.

Editor’s note: Contrary to the AFP dispatch of 14 June on the basis of the OSDH, the customs post, located 6 km from Kessab, was only a pretext to attack by Al Front -Nosra, because it is not strategic. As Fabrice Ballanche (Director of Group Research and Studies on the Mediterranean and the Middle East) said in the dossier on the Kessab # 207 Armenian News Magazine, “Turkey closed the border since months and the traffic was almost nil since the beginning of the Syrian crisis. Moreover, the customs Kessab has never been very important: daily bus between Antioch and Latakia and a few cars. It is no comparison Bab el Awa or Azaz. In addition, the rebels did not need Kessab to bring weapons in Syria, they control the entire Urdu ATHMA border, northeast of Idleb, or 200 km.

Another strategic objective was put forward by the OSDH: wearing Samra (Kaladouran), which give the rebels access to the sea in Syrian territory, to be refueled in arms and ammunition. Samra’s famous port is a small harbor where fishing boats moored a few, we are far from a strategic infrastructure. And why the rebels would they need access to the sea 100 meters from the Turkish border, while receiving safe all the equipment they need via Turkey? Finally, we presented the attack as a prelude to a major offensive on the coastal region and Latakia, the stronghold of the Alawite community. This last argument does not hold either. They could very well do it from their two strongholds in the region: Jebel Jebel Akrad and Turkmen. Moreover, they know that they will not take the Alawite territory very well defended by the army and the population itself, which has everything to fear from jihadists. “Moreover, as is recalled in Fabrice Ballanche an analysis to be published in the July No. of NAM, “three months after taking Kessab the rebels had not yet advanced to Latakia, on the contrary, they were confined in the village of Kessab, having abandoned the valley the Kaladouran and Chalma heights. “ This attack of the last Armenian village in the region therefore proceeded well a willingness of ethnic cleansing carried out with at least downstream of Turkey.