DAMASCUS: Syrian troops buoyed by victory in Qusayr were preparing yesterday to launch a northern offensive, a security source said.
A Syrian security source said the regime’s next target was Aleppo province in the north. “It is likely the battle for Aleppo will start in the coming hours or days, and its aim is to reclaim the towns and villages in the province,” the source said.
“The Syrian Arab army is ready to carry out its mission in this province.” The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights has reported the regime was deploying “thousands of soldiers” in the Aleppo region, aiming to recapture rebel posts and sever supply routes from neighbouring Turkey.
The announcement of a potential new offensive comes five days after the army expelled rebels from Qusayr in central-west Syria.
Syrians were shown yesterday firing into the air and waving portraits of President Bashar Al Assad in Qusayr to celebrate the government’s victory, in footage broadcast by Hezbollah’s Al Manar television.
Syrian daily Al Watan said the army has “started to deploy at a large scale in Aleppo province, in preparation for a battle that will be fought in the city and its outskirts”. Rebels last July launched a massive assault on Aleppo, once Syria’s commercial hub. The city has since suffered daily regime bombardment and clashes.
Al Watan also said “the Syrian army will take advantage of its experience in Qusayr and Eastern Ghouta (near Damascus) to advance in the (central) province of Hama and Homs” nearby.
The conflict also spilled over into Iraq, where a guard was killed and two were wounded in clashes with Syrian rebels near a border crossing.
On the international front, British Foreign Secretary William Hague said Syrian regime gains made it harder to organise a US-Russian proposed peace conference. “The regime has gained ground on the ground, again at the cost of huge loss of life and the indiscriminate use of violence against the civilian population,” he told BBC television. “That makes the Geneva conference harder to bring about and to make a success.”
Also, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed Syria’s conflict by telephone. The premier’s office said Netanyahu had spoken to Putin after Russia offered to bolster the beleaguered UN peacekeeping force monitoring the Israeli-Syrian ceasefire line on the Golan Heights. “We discussed issues linked to Syria where the situation is becoming more complex by the day,” Netanyahu said.
Syria’s main opposition coalition reiterated that it refuses to join the peace talks dubbed Geneva 2. “What is happening in Syria today completely closes the doors on any discussions about international conferences and political initiatives,” George Sabra, interim head of the National Coalition, said in Istanbul.
AFP
