Boosted by Influx of weapons Syrian rebels in strategic battle to secure Jordan-Damascus corridor

March 31, AP – Beirut: The strategic region — known as the Houran plains, which stretch from the outskirts of the capital south into Jordan — is seen as a crucial gateway to the ultimate prize of Damascus.

A recent influx of weapons appears to have made the goal seem more within reach than ever.

Capitalizing on a recent influx of weapons, Syrian rebels are waging a strategic battle for the southern part of the country and seeking to secure a corridor from the Jordanian border to Damascus in preparation for an eventual assault on the capital.

Although rebels control wide areas in northern Syria that border Turkey, the Jordanian frontier is only about 100 kilometres from Damascus, or a third of the distance to Turkey in the north, where fighters control large swaths of territory.

Rebels have established footholds in a number of Damascus suburbs but have only been able to push into limited areas in the southern and northeastern parts of the capital. Fighters say they are trying to carve out a route from Jordan to Damascus.

In recent weeks, they have made significant advances in the southern provinces of Daraa and Quneitra bordering Jordan and Israel, seizing towns and villages near the cease-fire line between Syria and Israel in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights and along the international highway linking Damascus with Jordan. They also seized several army checkpoints, clearing a 25-kilometre stretch along the Syrian-Jordanian border. Last week, rebels seized a major air defence base near the village of Saida.

It is difficult to know the size of the area controlled by the rebels. Activists say that in many towns and villages in the province, regime forces maintain “symbolic” presence through small bases and checkpoints that are increasingly coming under attack.

Fighting takes place on a daily basis in areas such as Tafas, Shaikh Maskin and Izraa along the route.

On Friday, regime forces abandoned the last of several checkpoints in Dael after a 24-hour rebel offensive. Dael has a population of 40,000 people, making it one of the bigger towns in the region, which is dotted with small family farms, and is less than 15 kilometres from the Jordanian border in Daraa province.

An activist in Tafas, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he feared government retaliation, said the presence of the regime forces in the province was shrinking daily.

The Ababil Houran and Al Omari brigades are among the prominent groups taking part in the fighting, along with the Yarmouk Martyrs Brigade, a band of Islamic militants that held 21 Filipino peacekeepers hostage for four days last month, raising concerns about the future of UN operations in the occupied Golan Heights.

Amateur video posted online by activists showed rebels in the streets of Dael and the bodies of dead soldiers on the ground. They also showed women celebrating and fighters shouting, “We are coming, Bashar.” The videos appeared genuine and corresponded to other Associated Press reporting on the events depicted.

The series of rebel gains coincided with what regional officials and military experts say is a sharp increase in weapons shipments to opposition fighters by Arab governments, in coordination with the US, in the hopes of readying a push into Damascus.

Officials and Western military experts have said that Jordan opened up as a new route for the weapons late last year. Two military analysts who closely follow the traffic said the weapons include more powerful, Croatian-made anti-tank guns and rockets, which the rebels have not had before.

Eliot Higgins in Britain and Nic Jenzen-Jones in Australia said they include M60 recoilless guns, M79 Osa rocket launchers, and RBG-6 grenade launchers, which all are powerful anti-tank weapons.

New flow of weapons

The weapons appear to have come in play recently. In videos posted on the internet earlier this month, rebels are seen carrying M79 Osa rocket launchers and more advanced weapons than the ones that the rebels were previously known to have.

A Syrian opposition figure who closely follows the fighting on the ground said recent rebel gains were due to the new flow of weapons from Jordan. He said a new supply route from Jordan to Damascus meant the rebels can now advance from different fronts to the capital. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to discuss such matters on the record.

Syrian activist Maher Jamous, who is from Dael but lives in the UAE, said that despite the steady advances and the latest rebel victory in Dael, the regime still maintains a strong presence in the strategic province that leads to the capital.

The regime is known to have posted elite troops in Daraa province, which separates Damascus from the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights that Israel captured in 1967 and annexed in 1981.

The province was once considered one of the most loyal regime strongholds. Vice-President Farouk Al Shar’a, Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad, Information Minister Omran Al Zoubi and several others high ranking officials are from Daraa.

“Our tactical plan is [control of] Daraa and strategically Damascus because the regime will only be defeated and brought down in Damascus,” said Colonel Ahmad Fahd Al Naameh, commander of the Military Council of the Southern Front.

In comments to Al Arabiya, he denied receiving weapons through Jordan and said most of the weapons were captured after overrunning army posts or were bought with money from rich Syrians.

In other fighting, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said heavy clashes took place between regime forces and fighters trying again to storm a strategic military facility, known as the 17th Division base, north of the city of Raqqa that was captured by rebels this month.

The base is considered one of the most important remaining regime strongholds in the northern province that borders Turkey, the Observatory said. It added that warplanes carried out several air raids in the area.

The Observatory said regime forces bombarded the Damascus suburb of Adra, while the government-run Al Ikhbariya TV said troops in the area killed “many terrorists” — the term the regime uses for rebel fighters. The site is close to one of the main jails in Syria.

At least 15 people were killed and many others wounded when a missile struck in the town of Hreitan, in Aleppo province, according to the Local Coordination Committees activist group. The report could not be independently verified.

The Aleppo Media Centre and the Observatory reported fighting, shelling and attacks by helicopter gunships near the international airport of the northern city of Aleppo, Syria’s largest city and its commercial centre.

Associated press journalist for human rights observers – Khizer Hayat reports from the region.

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Category: Arab uprising