Watchdog: Syrian Forces, Hizbullah Tighten Noose on Homs Rebels
إقرأ هذا الخبر بالعربية
Regime forces were on Thursday tightening the noose on rebels holed up in a key area of the central city of Homs, the Syrian Observatory for Human rights watchdog said.
"The Syrian army, supported by back-up forces and expert officers from Iran and Hizbullah, has taken control of large parts of the Wadi al-Sayeh district" in the center of Homs, the group said in a statement.
The neighborhood is half way between the Khaldiyeh district and the Old City, two rebel-held areas that have been under siege by the army for nearly a year.
"Taking Wadi al-Sayeh would enable the army to isolate those two districts" by severing links between them, said the Britain-based Observatory which relies on a network of activists and medical staff on the ground for its information.
"In the Old City 800 families have been under siege for nearly a year, and hundreds have been wounded. If (Sunni-majority) Old Homs is taken, sectarian revenge attacks could take place" by pro-regime forces, it said.
Homs, the third largest city in the country, has been dubbed by the opposition Syrian National Council as the "beating heart of the revolution.”
It was one of the first cities to join the revolt against President Bashar Assad's regime that began two years ago with peaceful protests but morphed into a bloody insurgency after a fierce crackdown on dissent.
Homs is divided along sectarian lines into Sunni, Alawite, Christian and ostensibly mixed quarters.
The regime is led by Alawites, an offshoot of Shiite Islam, while Syria's population is majority Sunni, as are the rebels.
In the Observatory statement, its chief Rami Abdel Rahman said officers from Iran and Hizbullah were directing the army's operations in Homs.
Hizbullah has already said that members of the group have been fighting in the Qusayr region in Homs province.
On April 17, Assad said his regime's defeat is not an option.
"There is no option but victory. Otherwise it will be the end of Syria, and I don't think that the Syrian people will accept such an option," he told state television al-Ikhbariya in an interview.
02 May 2013, 11:49
57
Bachar is going down and taking Nasrallah and Hezbelshaitan down with him.
02 May 2013, 17:51
12
Anyone sane would wish for both filthy bashar and the filthy arab kings to go down. May Allah curse them all.
02 May 2013, 12:46
611
good luck killing 80% of the syrian people you fool...
assad supporters have reached the lowest levels of humanity. laughing at the death and rape of women and children and celebrating any temperory victory by missiles and chemical weapons. Stripped of any morals. lie in your face and lie to themselves.
Assad regime is 43 years of dictatorship. It will go down and will take hizballah terrorists with him. This is how life rolls
people like josh-bustany do not deserve any better treatment than what the poor syrian civilians are getting on the hands of assad shabbeeha
02 May 2013, 19:35
10
"it will go down and will take hizballah terrorists with him." Primo, tu peux toujours fantasmer derrière ton clavier, n'empêche sur le terrain tes petites copines sont en train de se faire massacrer. Enfin, tu m'as bien fait marrer quand j'ai vu que tu avais comme pseudo 'Salafiste' et que tu te permettais de traiter le HEZBOLLAH de terroristes. C'est l'hosto qui se fout de la charité. Aux dernières nouvelles, ce sont tes copines qui ont pour hobby les attentas suicide et l'égorgement de civils. Quand on voit la tronche de vos "religieux" qui sont presque tous borgnes ou qui ont des visages balafrés, on se dit que Dieu fait décidément bien les choses. Il a créé ces types ave le mot Terroriste Sanguinaire et Sataniste sur le front. Vous êtes définitivement l'Armée de l'Antéchrist, il n'y a aucun doute là-dessus. Et tu connais bien la fin de l'histoire et c'est pas l'Antéchrist qui gagne...Ciao l'ami
02 May 2013, 14:13
46
if this war is to spill over lebanon it would only be the responsability of hezbollah and their FPM allies... hezbollah clearly says that they do not care about the inexistent lebanese gvt in their eyes and are in syria to back the regime not the "lebanese" living there... as all the lebanese parties called for disassociation hezb does not respond to it and FPM by their backing are accomplices of hezbis!
as for M14 they clearly stated they disagree with the sunnis radical call for jihad which only engages asir and tripolis salafis...
so if the assad regime is so strong as M8 claims i do not understand why the need of hezbollah if not to preserve their OWN interests....
02 May 2013, 15:12
36
do you really believe what you say?
do you really believe that m14 has so much money to give to the Syrian FSA?
do you think the Gulf, if they want to send money, would need m14 to do so?
you are delusional, not to say crazy, repeating this litany you have been thought by the turban man, just to justify sending Lebanese shia to be killed over there, because it suits your Iranian masters.
02 May 2013, 15:35
43
peace lover
what do you mean if the war is spilled over to Lebanon
what did you think it's happening in Tripoli
I don't think the Hez have a base there, but surely all those Sunnies and their sympotizers aren't running all those guns accross to Syria for nothing
03 May 2013, 00:37
00
i wasn t aware that a war was going on in tripoli.... but certainly in your mind it is! lol
02 May 2013, 15:41
25
ft re read what I said and do not twist it making it an attack on shia. hopefully you will understand what I wrote.
02 May 2013, 16:59
14
ft
calm down or you will bust avein :)
what I actually said the more extremists killed in Syria, the better it is.
and if I said shia, then it was a mistake for which I apologize if I said it this way.
in no way I am sectarian, and as a matter of fact I am against sectarianism as professed by you and mowaten :)
03 May 2013, 00:36
00
lol.... asir is just the result of the presence of hezbollah ... this militian party does whatever it wants in lebanon disregarding laws and constitution and says it openly! it is mathematical that this presence will trigger a counterbalance... only fools believe the contrary!
those supporting hezbis should also support asir as it is the same islamist party... why tolerate one and not the other if you are logical.... lol!
03 May 2013, 07:53
00
M14 official stance is no envovement in Syrian events although m14 support the fall of the regime and establishment of democracy. m14 getting cash, weapons and people to support the revolutionaries is propaganda. The few Salafists that are obeying a few mad clerics are no m14.
HA is now officially supporting the Syrians regime militarily. First it was a question of defending the Lebanese villages in Syria. Two days ago Hassan said that HA is supporting the regime.
Who is being hypocritical here FT?
HA is drawing Lebanon at speed of sound into the Syrian war. As we would expect some Lebanese mad Islamists haters of Iran/Syrian/HA will join the party.
We need both m14 and m8 to distance themselves from combats and shorten the distance among them to build a country with bonne entente among communities. What we have seen so far is M8 with the support of HA weapons is trying to anchor firmly Lebanon in the Syrian Iranian axis.
02 May 2013, 15:21
35
the Syrian regime and hizbushaitan will not be allowed to take control of that area. as in the Lebanese civil war there was green lines, in Syria too there are green lines, no one is allowed to cross.
this war is there to deplete both sides.
02 May 2013, 15:43
25
coward: hummmm... :)
show me an attack on shia made by me.
I do attack hizbushaitan because they are traitors executing the orders of iran. and there is the big difference.
02 May 2013, 17:00
15
ft
resorting to insults when you have nothing to say? :)
calm down.....
if hizbushaitan has lost, you do not need to be insulting! :)
02 May 2013, 15:44
46
obviously you realize you lost, and your insults are there to prove it :)
02 May 2013, 17:18
14
funny ft :) guys if you do not have an ft, you must buy one :) you have to admit he is really funny :)
nerds? that means they are geniuses! thank you ft! :)
at least they know how to tweet! :)
02 May 2013, 15:45
34
Actually I agree with you on failed state, but it is due to hizbushaitan taking the country hostage of its Iranian weapons. but rest assured: it is not going to be for long now. :)
02 May 2013, 15:46
33
for me assir is the nemesis of hizbushaitan, and you can take him with you when you return to iran.
02 May 2013, 15:48
44
by the way in case you did not notice: this article does not even mention Assir :)
02 May 2013, 16:15
00
geha, you humor me. go play in the sand box boy. you have never criticized any for being wrong. you only criticize who you don't like. Have you ever talked about what these takfirs and there supporters doing in Liban and Syria. When ever Shi'a or Christian do omething or say something you jump on the bandwagon to criticize, but never have you commented on the likes of Those who cause strife and instigate hate and violence and as far as Hizballah goes yeah, sure they have weapons but they can give them up when you have salafist dog like Assir ranting "Jihad" and wants to kill all Christians and Shi'a for their beliefs. Christ help the Lebanese people. They will never learn. The Saudi agenda for Liban is to make a saltilte or off shoot of Saudi where they can come and enjoy the luxury of the west. Saudis a re hypocrites and will exterminate Chritian and Shi'as from Liban
02 May 2013, 17:02
13
once more: ft, when you have nothing to say you do not need to resort to insults :)
you lost and you know it, that is why all your comments are insults :)
02 May 2013, 17:03
04
phoenix, after the guns fell silent, hafez el assad took charge and after him his son. and that is what got us here.
the alternative to fighting is giving up, taking more oppression and one sided violence and intimidation, until a couple of decades from now, things explode again.
02 May 2013, 17:06
14
m8 guys are becoming so desperate that all they have to say is insults. nothing of substance. enjoy your insults: that is all you can do hiding behind your keyboards :)
whatever you say: you have lost and your comments show it.
you are going down and you know it, even if I did not say it, it is so apparent from your insults.
enjoy :) you make us all laugh on this site, so keep it up. the more insults, we know how deep is your loss.
02 May 2013, 17:42
00
Pretty soon your little lion will be raped with a stick like Qaddafi was before him.
02 May 2013, 17:50
14
I see geha making rational and compassionate comments here often. I see nothing but hate and nonsense coming from josephani.
02 May 2013, 18:27
02
I'm coming to his defense because he seems like a decent human being. I've never seen him spout hateful nonsense in the short time I have been here. You on the other hand, every comment has been spiteful and personal.
02 May 2013, 21:30
02
HA is paying back the debt owed to Iran and Syria for helping them rise to power. It will cost them big in the end. It's just that simple folks.
02 May 2013, 22:17
00
URGENT CALL: Al Asseer Wa Fosso 7ami to the rescue ASAP. The Sunnis (aka the filthier than the filthiest filth) are getting their butts pummeled! allouchti, geha, primesuspect, GabbyMarch14, NostraBenzona, you hopeful self-exploding warriors, the JIHAD is calling, and those virgins down there (or up there depending on one's perspective) are in extreme heat and cannot wait much longer for your meat daggers. What better time than now to reproduce crazies? That Sunni gene, aka the Craziness Gene or the Going Berserk Gene or the Lunatics Galore Gene is in full bloom.
03 May 2013, 07:28
00
Dear Josh, admittedly there are Islamists fighting. However you are ignoring that the revolution was started and led by civilians seeking to live in liberty and democracy after being governed by tyranny for many decades. Your awareness of the danger of Islamists should not overwhelm that fact.
