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SYRIA ARMY RETAKES KEY POST IN REGIME BASTION LATAKIA: TV
The Daily Star, Lebanon
March 31 2014
March 31, 2014 09:21 PM
DAMASCUS: Syrian army troops recaptured on Monday a key position in
coastal Latakia province, a regime bastion, state television said,
as rebels press a campaign in the region.
"Syrian army units have full control of Observatory 45 in the north
of Latakia province and are continuing to pursue terrorist groups,"
the state broadcaster said, quoting the military.
Observatory 45 is a strategic hilltop that overlooks several areas
inhabited by residents from the Alawite community, the religious sect
to which President Bashar al-Assad belongs.
State television reported live from near the site and broadcast
pictures of dead bodies it said were "terrorists," many of them
foreigners.
Last week, the rebels seized the position as part of an offensive
launched on March 21 in Latakia province, which had been relatively
untouched by the widespread violence elsewhere in the country.
Rebel forces, including jihadists from the Al-Qaeda-affiliated Al-Nusra
Front, have also captured the Armenian town of Kasab and the nearby
Kasab border crossing with Turkey, as well as the village of Samra,
giving them access to the Mediterranean for the first time.
More than 300 people on both sides have been killed since the rebels
launched their offensive, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
"The army has managed to install multiple rocket-launchers on
Observatory 45, but fighting in continuing in the vicinity of the
hillside," said the monitoring group.
After a series of rebel losses in Damascus province, the opposition has
shifted its focus to Latakia, where the army and pro-regime militias
have rallied to defend the area.
On Monday, opposition forces fired Grad rockets at the Bassel al-Assad
airport for the first time.
The civilian facility is named for a deceased brother of the president
and is near the town of Qardaha, the Assad clan's ancestral home.
Assad's father Hafez al-Assad, who preceded as president, is buried
in Qardaha.
"The rockets landed near the airport without causing deaths or damage,"
Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP.
The conflict has become more complex with rebels once allied in their
bid to topple the regime now fighting against each other.
In the past 10 days, fighters from the Islamic State of Iraq and the
Levant (ISIL) have been locked in battle with fellow jihadists from
Al-Nusra Front in the northeastern province of Hasakeh.
The Observatory said the death toll from the fighting has risen to
120, after fierce weekend clashes for control of Markada, a town on
the border with Iraq, where ISIL has its roots.
ISIL seized on Saturday the town which lies on a key route through
which the jihadists obtain supplies from Iraq.
Syria's conflict in now in its fourth year, and more than 146,000
people have been killed since it began.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Middle-East/2014/Mar-31/251849-syria-army-retakes-key-post-in-regime-bastion-latakia-tv.ashx#axzz2xZP3jwkP
The Daily Star, Lebanon
March 31 2014
March 31, 2014 09:21 PM
DAMASCUS: Syrian army troops recaptured on Monday a key position in
coastal Latakia province, a regime bastion, state television said,
as rebels press a campaign in the region.
"Syrian army units have full control of Observatory 45 in the north
of Latakia province and are continuing to pursue terrorist groups,"
the state broadcaster said, quoting the military.
Observatory 45 is a strategic hilltop that overlooks several areas
inhabited by residents from the Alawite community, the religious sect
to which President Bashar al-Assad belongs.
State television reported live from near the site and broadcast
pictures of dead bodies it said were "terrorists," many of them
foreigners.
Last week, the rebels seized the position as part of an offensive
launched on March 21 in Latakia province, which had been relatively
untouched by the widespread violence elsewhere in the country.
Rebel forces, including jihadists from the Al-Qaeda-affiliated Al-Nusra
Front, have also captured the Armenian town of Kasab and the nearby
Kasab border crossing with Turkey, as well as the village of Samra,
giving them access to the Mediterranean for the first time.
More than 300 people on both sides have been killed since the rebels
launched their offensive, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
"The army has managed to install multiple rocket-launchers on
Observatory 45, but fighting in continuing in the vicinity of the
hillside," said the monitoring group.
After a series of rebel losses in Damascus province, the opposition has
shifted its focus to Latakia, where the army and pro-regime militias
have rallied to defend the area.
On Monday, opposition forces fired Grad rockets at the Bassel al-Assad
airport for the first time.
The civilian facility is named for a deceased brother of the president
and is near the town of Qardaha, the Assad clan's ancestral home.
Assad's father Hafez al-Assad, who preceded as president, is buried
in Qardaha.
"The rockets landed near the airport without causing deaths or damage,"
Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP.
The conflict has become more complex with rebels once allied in their
bid to topple the regime now fighting against each other.
In the past 10 days, fighters from the Islamic State of Iraq and the
Levant (ISIL) have been locked in battle with fellow jihadists from
Al-Nusra Front in the northeastern province of Hasakeh.
The Observatory said the death toll from the fighting has risen to
120, after fierce weekend clashes for control of Markada, a town on
the border with Iraq, where ISIL has its roots.
ISIL seized on Saturday the town which lies on a key route through
which the jihadists obtain supplies from Iraq.
Syria's conflict in now in its fourth year, and more than 146,000
people have been killed since it began.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Middle-East/2014/Mar-31/251849-syria-army-retakes-key-post-in-regime-bastion-latakia-tv.ashx#axzz2xZP3jwkP