Civilians and Free Syrian Army fighters look into the sky at a site hit by what activists said were barrel bombs dropped by government forces at Qadi Askar district in Aleppo yesterday.
DAMASCUS: Syrian troops recaptured the strategic town of Deir Attiyeh yesterday, less than a week after losing it, taking the advantage in its bid to crush rebels just north of Damascus.
The seizure of Deir Attiyeh, on the Damascus-Homs highway, comes two weeks into an army offensive in the Qalamoun region, important to the regime for its proximity to the capital and to the rebels for the supply lines it offers to neighbouring Lebanon.
It also comes amid intense international efforts to hold a peace conference aimed at ending the 32-month conflict that has killed more than 120,000 people and displaced millions.
“Our heroic army has taken total control of the town of Deir Attiyeh in Damascus province after it crushed the terrorists’ last enclaves there,” state television said.
A high-ranking security official confirmed the report, saying the town had been “cleansed” and that “operations to expel the terrorists from nearby areas are ongoing.”
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the army was now in “near-total control” of Deir Attiyeh, which had been captured by the rebels last Friday, although gunfire could still be heard.
A security source said troops had also entered the nearby town of Nabuk.
“If this town is captured, all we’ll have left is Yabroud and some other villages to completely block off the border with Lebanon and to stop any entrance or exit of rebels into Lebanon,” the source said.
“The next phase will be to retake the south (of Syria). The north and the east are for later,” he added, referring to areas under the control of the rebels or of Kurdish militia.
Also fighting in Qalamoun is Lebanese Shia militant group Hezbollah, which backs President Bashar Al Assad and has sent thousands of fighters into Syria.
A source close to the group said a nephew of Lebanese Agriculture Minister Hussein Hajj Hassan, a prominent Hezbollah figure, was killed on Wednesday along with three comrades.
Fighting raged elsewhere in Syria, a day after Iran said it and Turkey, which support opposing sides in the conflict, would press for a ceasefire ahead of the Geneva 2 peace conference.
In Damascus, mortar fire hit the Russian embassy killing a Syrian and wounding nine others, the foreign ministry in Moscow said.
No Russians were hurt in the attack, one of several on the mission in recent months which have been blamed on rebels angered by Moscow’s continued backing for Assad.
Another round struck near the parliament building.
Around Marj, in the capital’s eastern suburbs, the Observatory said 11 rebels were killed.
Further east, in the Euphrates valley city of Raqa, a missile killed at least six people overnight and wounded 30 more.
Raqa is the only provincial capital lost to the regime since the conflict erupted in March 2011.
In Atareb, in Aleppo province in the north, the jihadist Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant executed Hassan Jazra and six members of his Ghuraba Al Sham battalion, accusing them of theft and looting.
In areas where it has fighters on the ground, ISIL has sought to establish itself as the sole power-broker, by eliminating smaller rival groups and by forming tactical alliances with the larger ones.
In south Aleppo, bombs dropped by helicopter killed five civilians and wounded 20.
AFP
AMMAN: UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres warned yesterday that regional countries hosting hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees need “massive” international aid to help them cope with the influx.
“Without a much more massive support to the countries in the region, Jordan, Lebanon and others, the international community cannot take for granted that these countries will be able to go on, accepting more and more hundreds of thousands or millions of Syrians refugees,” Guterres told reporters in the Jordanian capital Amman.
“This is the moment for the international community to fully understand that the support provided to the countries of the region needs to be strongly enhanced, needs to be really massive because there is a risk...” he said.
Guterres said the United Nations estimates that more than three million people have fled Syria, mostly to Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey, Iraq and Egypt, since the conflict erupted after a crackdown on protests that began in March 2011 against President Bashar Al Assad,
During his visit, Guterres held talks with Jordan’s King Abdullah II, Prime Minister Abdullah Nsur and Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh.
The UN official called on Jordan “to facilitate the entry of old men and women as well as children and families” fleeing the conflict in Syria.
Amnesty International and other world organisations have said that despite statements by Jordanian authorities that the border has remained open to those fleeing the conflict, research indicates that scores are being denied access to the kingdom.
The tiny desert kingdom hosts more than 500,000 Syrian refugees, including some 100,000 in the northern Zaatari camp near the border.
AFP
