WORLD_ Syrian Rebels Claim Big Gains in City Where Protests Began

Syrian Rebels Claim Big Gains in City Where Protests Began

By HANIA MOURTADA and RICK GLADSTONE
Published: June 28, 2013


BEIRUT, Lebanon — Rebel fighters in southern Syria claimed on Friday to be in control of most of the city of Dara’a, the cradle of the 2011 uprising against President Bashar al-Assad, after having battled his forces there for two weeks. The assertions, if confirmed, would represent a rare military victory for the insurgency, which has been struggling since it lost the stronghold city of Qusayr near the Lebanon border on June 5.

A dispatch by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an anti-Assad activist group in Britain with a network of contacts inside Syria, said “Islamic rebel battalions” had seized the Binayat checkpoint, an important military gateway into Dara’a, which had enabled them to then assert a strategic advantage over much of the city.

Video posted on the Internet showed what the rebels claimed to be the destruction of a high-rise building at the checkpoint, along with proclamations of victory by fighters of the Nusra Front “and the Islamic battalions who participated in the operation.”

Rami Abdulrahman, the head of the Syrian Observatory, said the insurgents had not taken full control of Dara’a. But in remarks quoted by Reuters, he said the Syrian military’s position in Dara’a was under threat and “this could change the balance of power there.”

An anti-Assad activist from Dara’a who is currently in Jordan agreed in a telephone interview that the seizure of the Binayat checkpoint was a setback for Syrian forces in Dara’a, but cautioned that the rebel claims of victory could be overstated. “The Islamic groups are trying to make a big deal behind this operation, a boasting attempt,” said the activist, who identified himself only by his given name, Taysir, for security reasons.

Dara’a is also near the border with Jordan, which anti-Assad activists say has emerged as a conduit for supplying rebels with weapons and supplies.

Lebanon’s Daily Star newspaper quoted residents of Dara’a as saying the rebels also had seized what was left of the Omari mosque, which was the gathering point for political protests that erupted in March 2011 against Mr. Assad and his family’s four decades in power in Syria.

The government’s harsh repression of those protests began a cycle of conflict that has since turned into an insurgency that has been joined by Sunni jihadist fighters from other countries fighting to topple Mr. Assad’s minority Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam that is supported by Iran and Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shiite militant group.

The Syrian Observatory said Wednesday that more than 100,000 people had been killed in the conflict. The United Nations has estimated that at least 93,000 people have been killed.


Hania Mourtada reported from Beirut, and Rick Gladstone from New York. Hwaida Saad contributed reporting from Beirut.

A version of this article appeared in print on June 29, 2013, on page A9 of the New York edition with the headline: Syrian Rebels Claim Big Gains In City Where Protests Began ..




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