Syria Rebels Hold Out against Homs Assault
Syrian rebels were still holding out on Thursday nearly two days into a ground assault by regime forces against the Homs district of Baba Amr, activists said, as a security source insisted regime forces were almost in control.
"The Free Syrian Army has succeeded in stopping the attempt to attack Baba Amr, and it continues to resist," Homs-based activist Hadi Abdullah told Agence France Presse.
He said that troops loyal to President Bashar Assad "have not entered the district," which has become a symbol of the Syrian uprising after 27 straight days of bombardment.
However, the head of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Rami Abdel Rahman, said: "The fighting between deserters and the army continues on the edges of Baba Amr, not inside."
He said that at least 12 soldiers had been killed in the assault so far.
"Last night (Wednesday), the bodies of 12 soldiers killed in the fighting around Baba Amr were taken to the military hospital in Homs, along with more than 15 seriously wounded."
A Damascus-based security source told AFP that the "army on Thursday controlled 90 percent of Baba Amr, while many of the rebels fled towards Lebanon," noting, however, that there were pockets of resistance.
"There remain pockets of resistance, mainly at Sultaniyeh south of Baba Amr," the source said.
A security source on Wednesday said that regime forces had launched a ground assault on Baba Amr late on Tuesday and that the neighborhood was "under control."
"There remain only few pockets" of resistance, the source added.
State television aired footage it said was filmed in Baba Amr, including interviews with people it said were residents angry with the rebels.
The footage included shots of what the broadcaster said were fortifications abandoned by the rebels.
People who spoke on television said they were in the neighborhood of Juret al-Arayess, which is, according to Abdel Rahman, outside Baba Amr.
The rebel fighters resisting in Baba Amr are only lightly armed, Free Syrian Army leader Colonel Riyadh Asaad said.
They are up against the heavy artillery of the elite Fourth Armored Division, which is under the command of Assad's younger brother, Maher.
Source: Agence France Presse
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