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Syrian soldiers enter last rebel bastion near Lebanese border: TV
March 15, 2014 - 14:34 AMT
PanARMENIAN.Net - Syrian soldiers entered eastern districts of the
town of Yabroud, the last rebel bastion near the Lebanese border north
of Damascus, on Saturday, March 15 and advanced towards the main
street, Al Mayadeen television said, according to Reuters.
The Beirut-based station broadcast footage showing soldiers charging
through a field towards an arched entrance of the town and a sign
saying "Welcome to Yabroud".
Gunfire could be heard as the soldiers advanced.
Capturing Yabroud would help President Bashar al-Assad choke off a
cross-border rebel supply line from Lebanon. The town is near the
highway linking Damascus to the former commercial hub Aleppo in the
north and to the Mediterranean coast in the west, a stronghold of
Assad's minority Alawite sect.
Thousands of people fled Yabroud, a town of an estimated 40,000-50,000
people roughly 60 km (40 miles) north of Damascus, and the surrounding
areas after it was bombed and shelled last month ahead of the assault.
The government has been making incremental gains along the highway as
well as around Damascus and Aleppo in recent months, regaining the
initiative in a conflict which enters its fourth year this month.
More than 140,000 people have been killed and 2.5 million have fled
abroad as refugees in an increasingly sectarian civil which began with
mass street protests against Assad in March 2011 but turned into an
armed insurgency after a crackdown on demonstrators.
March 15, 2014 - 14:34 AMT
PanARMENIAN.Net - Syrian soldiers entered eastern districts of the
town of Yabroud, the last rebel bastion near the Lebanese border north
of Damascus, on Saturday, March 15 and advanced towards the main
street, Al Mayadeen television said, according to Reuters.
The Beirut-based station broadcast footage showing soldiers charging
through a field towards an arched entrance of the town and a sign
saying "Welcome to Yabroud".
Gunfire could be heard as the soldiers advanced.
Capturing Yabroud would help President Bashar al-Assad choke off a
cross-border rebel supply line from Lebanon. The town is near the
highway linking Damascus to the former commercial hub Aleppo in the
north and to the Mediterranean coast in the west, a stronghold of
Assad's minority Alawite sect.
Thousands of people fled Yabroud, a town of an estimated 40,000-50,000
people roughly 60 km (40 miles) north of Damascus, and the surrounding
areas after it was bombed and shelled last month ahead of the assault.
The government has been making incremental gains along the highway as
well as around Damascus and Aleppo in recent months, regaining the
initiative in a conflict which enters its fourth year this month.
More than 140,000 people have been killed and 2.5 million have fled
abroad as refugees in an increasingly sectarian civil which began with
mass street protests against Assad in March 2011 but turned into an
armed insurgency after a crackdown on demonstrators.