Rebel Archives

A new Syrian rebel group has vowed to ‘resist’ Turkey’s military incursion

September 7, 2016 by administrator

The Syrian National Resistance announces its formation Tuesday. ANHA News via Now Lebanon

BEIRUT – A group claiming to represent “national Syrian forces” has vowed to fight Turkey’s military incursion in Syria, announcing its formation in a north Aleppo town that is under the administrative control of the de-facto autonomous Kurdish government.

On Tuesday, the Syrian National Resistance held a press conference in Tel Rifaat to introduce its founding declaration, which was read out by Rezan Hedo, an independent member of the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces’ political wing.

“Oh Syrian brothers, people of the region have suffered from the decades of Turkish-Ottoman rule, [which] has left us with only ignorance, backwardness, hatred, sectarianism and fighting between brothers at the same time as our wealth was taken away as well as parts of our land,” the speech, which was replete with nationalistic terminology, began.

The new group went on to launch further broadsides against Turkey, accusing Syria’s northern neighbor of perpetrating “the worst forms of genocide” against people in the region, including Arabs, Kurds, Armenians, Greeks, Assyrians and Chaldeans.

“Today, [Turkey] has returned with a new look but with the same [old] mentality; to occupy other parts of our Syrian land after sowing discord and infighting between Syrians through their support for terror,” the statement added, in reference to Ankara’s military operation in northern Syria.

The Syrian National Resistance’s announcement, which made no explicit reference to Kurdish forces in northern Syria, presented its goals, which include:

1. “Resolving the disputes between the different Syrian components and uniting their powers to build a united, democratic Syria”;

2. “Confronting the Turkish occupation and deterring it from achieving its objectives; as well as restoring all Syrian land, from Jarablus to Liwa al-Iskenderun,” in reference to Turkey’s Hatay Province, which was annexed from Syria in 1939, and;

3. “Future work with all national forces to liberate every inch of occupied Syrian land.”

On August 24, Syrian rebel groups supported by the Turkish army crossed into Syria in an offensive to roll back ISIS and prevent Kurdish-led troops from controlling more territory along the border. These troops have since cleared ISIS from the border, while at the same time engaging with battles against the SDF north of Manbij.

A Turkish soldier on an armoured personnel carrier waves as it is driven from the border back to their base in Karkamis on the Turkish-Syrian border in the southeastern Gaziantep province, Turkey, August 27, 2016. REUTERS/Umit Bektas

The Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) and its People’s Protection Units (YPG) vociferously oppose the Turkish campaign, with PYD co-chief Saleh Muslim warning Ankara that it “will be defeated in the Syrian quagmire, just like ISIS.”

The PYD has made no official statement on the formation of the Syrian National Resistance, which was covered extensively by the ANHA news agency, which is close to Syria’s Kurdish fighting forces.

ANHA described the Syrian National Resistance as a coalition of “Syrian national forces and figures,” without specifying which groups joined the new formation.

Rezan Hedo, the head of the group’s political bureau, explained in aninterview with Lebanon’s Al-Akhbar that the Syrian National Resistance counts on “support from Syrians of different political orientations, between [regime] supporters and opponents.”

He also stressed that anti-Turkish alliance has no ties with the international coalition fighting ISIS, which backs the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces.

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/a-new-syrian-rebel-group-has-vowed-to-resist-turkeys-military-incursion-2016-9

Syria: Nearly 97 rebel groups sign Syria truce deal

February 26, 2016 by administrator

The Syrian opposition High Negotiations Committee (HNC) said on Friday that nearly 100 rebel groups have agreed to the recently negotiated Russian-US ceasefire in the Arab republic.
As co-chairs of the International Syria Support Group (ISSG), Moscow and Washington announced a plan for a ceasefire between the Syrian government and rebel forces starting this Saturday.

The ceasefire does not apply to Daesh jihadist group or other designated terrorist organizations, including al-Nusra Front, Sputniknews.com reports.

“The HNC confirms the acceptance among the Free Syrian Army and the armed opposition to adhere to a temporary truce starting at midnight on February 27 for the duration of two weeks,” the HNC said in a statement, according to the website.

The agreement was reached after “negotiations with 97 opposition groups,” the committee said, without naming the exact rebel forces.

Earlier this week, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov told RIA Novosti that Russia and the United States were in talks over the preparation of the draft UN Security Council resolution. The draft will reportedly be put up for a vote on Friday.

On Monday, the United States and Russia, the co-chairs of the International Syria Support Group (ISSG), announced a plan for a ceasefire between the warring parties in Syria to go into effect on Saturday, February 27. The agreement has been approved by the other 17 members of the ISSG.

Rebel Jaysh al-Islam 4 killed as rockets rain down on Syrian capital: monitor

January 25, 2015 by administrator

BEIRUT – Agence France-Presse

The attack comes two days after Zahran Alloush, head of the rebel Jaysh al-Islam (Army of Islam), warned on Twitter that his forces would launch a ‘rocket campaign against the capital’ from Sunday. AFP Photo

Four civilians were killed and dozens wounded when rebels fired a barrage of rockets and mortar rounds Jan. 25 at central Damascus, a monitoring group said.

The rebel attack came two days after they threatened to retaliate for deadly air raids by the Syrian regime against an opposition-held area on the edge of the capital.

“Four civilians have been killed and dozens more wounded, as rebels in the Eastern Ghouta area fired more than 43 locally made rockets and mortar rounds at several areas of central Damascus,” the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Among the areas hit were the Al-Maliki and Mazzeh neighbourhoods, as well as Arnus and Sabaa Bahrat squares, said the Britain-based group.

AFP journalists in Sabaa Bahrat square could hear the blasts, while ambulances and fire trucks rushed to the area.

State news agency SANA said the army fired back at the source, blaming rebels in the Eastern Ghouta area, without giving any initial report of casualties or naming the residential areas hit.

The attack comes two days after Zahran Alloush, head of the rebel Jaysh al-Islam (Army of Islam), warned on Twitter that his forces would launch a “rocket campaign against the capital” from Sunday.

“The rockets’ brigade is preparing for a rocket campaign against the capital, which will see rockets rain down every day… in retaliation for the regime’s savage air raids… against our people in the… Eastern Ghouta area,” Alloush wrote.

Government aircraft on Friday carried out a string of deadly raids against rebel-held Hammuriyeh in the besieged Eastern Ghouta area, located east of Damascus.

The Observatory said 56 people were killed, among them six children. Only five of the dead were fighters, said the group close to the Syrian opposition that relies on a network of activists and medics on the ground.

Alloush’s Jaysh al-Islam is the most powerful rebel group in Eastern Ghouta.

Tens of thousands of civilians trapped in the area suffer extreme shortages of food and medicine, activists say.

Syria’s war began as a peaceful revolt demanding democratic change, but later morphed into a brutal civil war after President Bashar al-Assad’s regime unleashed a massive crackdown against dissent.

More than 200,000 people have been killed since March 2011, and half the population has been forced to flee their homes.

January/25/2015

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Syrian troops break rebel siege on Aleppo main prison: monitor

May 22, 2014 by administrator

May 22, 2014 – 14:06 AMT

Reuters Syrian troops have broken a year-long rebel siege on Aleppo’s main prison after heavy fighting with al Qaeda fighters and other Islamist brigades, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said on Thursday, May 22, according to Reuters.

It said forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad entered the prison compound in military vehicles and gunfire was heard.

Syrian state media did not report on the fighting around the prison on Thursday, but earlier said Assad’s forces had captured the town of Hailan next to the prison, about 5 miles northeast of Aleppo city.

Assad’s forces and rebels have been fighting for two years in Aleppo, Syria’s largest city before the start of the three-year civil war, and the countryside around it.

Rebels, including fighters from al Qaeda’s Nusra Front, have tried repeatedly to storm the prison and free its inmates, bombing and breaching its outer walls but failing to take full control. The complex holds around 3,000 prisoners.

The recapture of the prison and its surroundings means that Assad’s forces have control over the north-east approach to Aleppo, the Observatory’s Rami Abdulrahman said.

The Britain-based, anti-Assad Observatory, which monitors the violence in Syria through a network of activists and medical and military sources, says more than 162,000 people have been killed in the conflict, which grew out of protests against Assad’s rule.

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Syria: Rebels on the offensive with new weapons

March 27, 2014 by administrator

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