Rebels seize piece of Syrian base

Regime forces retreat from Aleppo post; road ambush kills 13

Free Syrian Army fighters take cover Monday behind trees outside a military base near Azaz, Syria.
Free Syrian Army fighters take cover Monday behind trees outside a military base near Azaz, Syria.

— Rebels captured part of a sprawling Syrian army base outside the northern city of Aleppo, tightening the opposition’s grip on areas close to the Turkish border, activists said Monday.

INTERACTIVE

Uprising in Syria

The gains by rebel forces came as the European Union denounced the Syrian conflict, which activists say has killed more than 40,000 people.

“The current situation in Syria is a stain on the world’s conscience, and the international community has a moral duty to address it,” European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said in Oslo as the EU received the Nobel Peace Prize.

photo

AP

Syrian boys, whose family fled their home in Idlib, walk to their tent Monday at a camp for displaced Syrians in the village of Atmeh, Syria.

The rebels also killed 13 soldiers in an ambush along a road linking Aleppo, the nation’s largest city and business hub, with Damascus and captured 20 soldiers and policemen at a post on the highway linking the central town of Salamiyeh with the northern city of Raqqa, activists said.

Once on the defensive, Syria’s rebels have gained momentum in recent weeks with a number of tactical advances, seizing air bases near Damascus and Aleppo and putting President Bashar Assad’s forces on their heels.

In an interview with Dubai TV, Syria’s top military defector said Assad’s regime is “over” and advised the president to leave office and let the country’s people decide their own fate.

Manaf Tlass, a Syrian general who was the first member of Assad’s inner circle to break ranks and join the opposition, said, “We are at a turning point, and the train of the revolution will be victorious.” Tlass, who defected in July, said he urged Assad to listen to the people’s demands and implement serious changes.

“I used to talk to the president four times a day and I used to see him every other day. I tried to convince him to react with the rebels. He always avoided answering and used to say they are armed gangs,” Tlass said from Paris, where he has been spending much of his time.

“I told him tens of times, and sometimes in a loud voice that ‘you should be with your people’ and he did not answer,” Tlass said. “It’s over. ... I advise him to leave.”

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the rebels entered the Sheik Suleiman military base outside Aleppo on Sunday afternoon, after weeks of fighting around the facility. Last month, they captured another base near the city, the Syrian army’s 46th Regiment base.

Rami Abdul-Rahman, who heads the Observatory, said the rebels who stormed Sheik Suleiman belong to hard-line Islamic militant groups such as Jabhat al-Nusra, Mujahedeen Shura Council and the Muhajireen group.

The groups, which count both Syrians and foreigners in their ranks, are among the most effective fighters on the rebel side of the country’s civil war. But the West is wary of such groups. The U.S. has designated the Jabhat al-Nusra group, which it suspects of having ties to al-Qaida, a terrorist organization, blocking its assets in the U.S. and barring Americans from doing business with the group.

The designation hasn’t been announced officially but was included in the Federal Register on Monday. The State Department said the group was part of al-Qaida in Iraq.

The rebels seized key sectors of the Sheik Suleiman base, which is home to the 111th Regiment, including its command center, the Observatory said.

About 140 Syrian troops fled to another, nearby base as the rebels advanced, Abdul-Rahman said, adding that opposition fighters captured seven government troops and killed two soldiers in the fighting.

Fighting around Syria has intensified in the past few months. The uprising, which began with peaceful protests against Assad’s regime in March 2011, has escalated into a civil war.

Abdul-Rahman said the rebels tried to storm Sheik Suleiman base two weeks ago but were pushed back by troops who killed nearly two dozen rebel fighters.

The Observatory also reported heavy fighting Monday on the southern edge of the strategic rebel-held town of Maaret al-Numan, captured from government troops in October. It said rebels ambushed an army unit, killing at least 13 soldiers.

The group said Syrian warplanes bombed the town after the death of the solders.

Also Monday, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton pulled out of a week-long trip to Arab nations because of a stomach virus, officials said. Deputy Secretary of State William Burns will take her place in Morocco, Tunisia and the United Arab Emirates.

On the first stop, in the Moroccan city of Marrakech on Wednesday, Burns likely will recognize Syria’s new opposition coalition as the legitimate representative of the Syrian people, officials said. Clinton had been expected to make the declaration, which is designed to reward anti-Assad leaders for making their movement more inclusive and to facilitate greater American assistance.

Information for this article was contributed by Bradley Klapper of The Associated Press.

Front Section, Pages 6 on 12/11/2012

Upcoming Events