Death in the orchards: the crumbling of the Syrian regime
Hundreds of Syrian troops and allied fighters have been mown down in painful defeats in the last week, as regime falters
Syrian soldiers fleeing Jisr al-Shughour National Hospital
By Louisa Loveluck, Cairo
9:18PM BST 24 May 2015
Syrian rebel leaders have described massacres of hundreds Assad troops and fighters in grim detail as the regime's defences begin to crumble in the face of revived attacks on several fronts.
President Bashar al-Assad had promised to rescue hundreds of his men who were surrounded in a last stand at a hospital in the key north-western town of Jisr al-Shughour.
Eventually, the men tried to run for it under the cover of a regime aerial attack, pre-empting a final assault by rebels including Jabhat al-Nusra, the Syrian branch of al-Qaeda, and other Islamist groups.
Instead, many of the soldiers were shot down as they were cornered in orchards on the edge of town, a rebel spokesman said.
"They headed for the surrounding orchards," the spokesman told Syria Direct, a specialist website. He said the rebels had dug a tunnel under the hospital, planning to blow it up, but opted instead to storm the building as air raids began.
The soldiers then tried to make a break for it, trying to reach regime lines.
"The majority were either captured or killed, because the armed opposition was monitoring and surrounding the area well,” the spokesman, Ali al-Hafawi, said. He said they counted 208 bodies, among them high-ranking officers.
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The rout in Jisr al-Shughour, the final outpost for Mr Assad’s forces in the northern province of Idlib, is indicative of a wider military collapse. It also opens a path to attack the central provinces of Homs and Hama from the west, even as Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant attack from the east.
Across the country, the regime's defences have started to cave after a year of effective stalemate as a reinvigorated alliance of rebel forces profits from a new detente between regional powers which have the Syrian regime in their sights.
In March, Saudi Arabia called on the rebels' other foreign backers - among them Turkey and Qatar - to put differences aside and work towards Mr Assad’s downfall.
The three are now said to be sending in heavy weapons to rebel groups, not including Jabhat al-Nusra but including groups allied with it. It is not clear to what extent this new policy has the support of the United States, an ally of all three countries, which has previously objected to heavy weapons being sent to hardline Islamist groups.
However, Saudi Arabia has fallen out badly with President Barack Obama over his refusal to do more to act against Mr Assad, as well as over Iran.
The regime also lost hundreds of men in the defeat in the historic city of Palmyra, east of Homs.
Activists denied reports in state media that Isil had killed 400 men, women and children in revenge killings. However, they have described the mass executions of regime fighters and "spies", with headless bodies left in the streets.
According to one account, 280 regime troops and fighters were killed during and after the final assault, and harrying operations afterwards.
Isil also posted a photograph showing 20 bedragged and depressed-looking regime soldiers it had apparently captured.
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