44 Dead as Syrian Army Overruns Idlib, Rebels Flee
إقرأ هذا الخبر بالعربية
Syrian forces have overrun the northwest city of Idlib and rebels have fled, an activist said Wednesday, giving sharp momentum to a push by the Damascus regime to crush an increasingly armed revolt, as 44 people were reportedly killed across the country.
"Since last night there has been no more fighting," said Noureddin al-Abdo, an activist in Idlib, confirming earlier reports by a government newspaper that Idlib had fallen after a four-day assault by regime forces.
"The (rebel) Free Syrian Army (FSA) has withdrawn and regime forces have stormed the entire city and are carrying out house-to-house searches," said Abdo.
The army launched its assault on the rebellious province of Idlib near the Turkish border on Saturday, bombarding the city of the same name and outlying regions in a bid to root out armed insurgents.
"The FSA preferred to withdraw because everyone knows it cannot resist the army," Abdo said.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said fierce clashes between regime forces and rebel troops were ongoing in the Jabal al-Zawiya district of the province and at least four people had died on Wednesday.
"Seventeen soldiers were killed late Tuesday after armed rebels attacked checkpoints in the village of al-Barra, in Jabal al-Zawiya," said the Britain-based group.
The capture of Idlib comes two weeks after regime forces stormed the Baba Amr rebel stronghold in the central city of Homs following a month-long blitz that left hundreds dead.
It also comes as the regime of President Bashar Assad responded to U.N.-Arab League proposals to end a year-long revolt in Syria that has killed more than 8,500 people, mostly civilians, according to activists.
A spokesman for U.N.-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan, who met with Assad in Damascus over the weekend and made "concrete" proposals to halt the bloodshed, said the unspecified Syrian response was being considered.
Meanwhile, opposition-affiliated Sham News Network reported that security forces killed 44 people across the country, identifying 16 of them who it said were killed in Idlib alone.
Residents managed to "pull them out of the streets after the shelling and heavy gunfire abated," SNN said.
Amnesty International on Wednesday said detainees in Syria's crackdown on dissent faced a "nightmarish world of systematic torture" that has set the country back decades.
"The scale of torture and other ill-treatment in Syria has risen to a level not witnessed for years and is reminiscent of the dark era of the 1970s and 1980s," the rights watchdog said in a report based on testimony from survivors who fled to Jordan.
The experience "is now very similar to that of detainees under former president Hafez Assad -- a nightmarish world of systemic torture," said Ann Harrison of Amnesty's Middle East and North Africa program, referring to Bashar's father.
Syria's leadership has consistently argued that the uprising shaking the country was the work of "armed terrorist groups" backed by foreign powers.
It has also rejected any negotiations with the opposition while pushing forth with reforms deemed a "farce" by the international community.
Assad on Tuesday issued a decree setting May 7 as the date for parliamentary elections under a new constitution adopted in February.
But Washington immediately dismissed the planned vote as "ridiculous".
"Parliamentary elections for a rubber-stamp parliament in the middle of the kind of violence that we're seeing across the country -- it's ridiculous," U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said.
They would be the third such polls since Assad came to power in 2000, but the first under a multi-party system as authorized under the new charter.
According to the U.N. refugee agency, an estimated 30,000 people have fled the fighting in Syria to neighboring countries and another 200,000 have been displaced inside the country.
The majority of the refugees are in neighboring Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon.
Rights watchdogs said this week that the Syrian regime had planted in recent weeks landmines near the borders with Turkey and Lebanon, along routes used by refugees fleeing the country.
Russia, accused of having shielded its ally Syria, said on Tuesday it will press Damascus to accept international monitors who could observe the implementation of a "simultaneous" ceasefire.
"We must not have a situation in which the government is required to leave the cities and villages while the armed groups are not made to do the same," said Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in Moscow.
Russia and China vetoed two past U.N. Security Council draft resolutions condemning Assad for the violence and have expressed reservations about a new U.S.-backed version.
14 March 2012, 10:34
37
The Rebels cannot hold big cities on a long term. They are under equipped, and not in sufficient numbers to hold and defeat the regime's tanks. They can only fight like a guerilla. Attack check points, ambushes, specific target surprise attacks, etc...
On the other hand, the army's command are very reluctant to send the troops in the cities because they fear for desertion. They have to try and control the soldiers, so they implement the "politique de la terre brulee"... they destroy entire neighborhoods and cities, but eventually, people won't forget, and certainly not forgive...
14 March 2012, 11:16
36
And now more killing, butchering, slaughtering, oppression, suppression in front of the eye of the international community which remains silent…………
14 March 2012, 12:26
72
The terrorist rebels have been finally pounded to submission. God bless Bashar al Assad. God bless the Syrian Army.
14 March 2012, 13:08
36
A question to the conspiracy theorists saying that the rebels are armed by the US,Turkey, Saudi, Israel and Mars: how is it that they are so heavily armed, yet they are not winning? The truth is the Syrian army is armed to the teeth and the rebels have handheld weapons and grenades and a few RPG that they either took when defecting or smuggled from weapons dealers on a small scale.
@love4bashar: Syria is the number one supporter of terrorism after Iran. In Iraq they funneled Jihadis to go kill Christians, in Lebanon they fund half a dozen different groups of crazies in the Palestinian camps and then there's the fake resistance (that kills more Lebanese than Israelis) and Hamas.
@mowaten: That's like asking jews to negotiate with hitler in the middle of world war 2. Let me predict how the election will go for you: Baath party wins majority of seats, fake party number 1 wins some and fake party 2 and 3 win some more and all of them support Assad.
14 March 2012, 18:58
24
Yaaa mowaten... your salafi argument is crap! If there are salafis they are indeed an insignificant minority... well this is what I hear from all the journalists who give their testimonies whan they come back from the syrian front... they claim they only saw ordinary people, or ex soldiers fighting for freedom, and trying to defend themselves... I know that this does not suit you, but it seems THIS is the truth... feel free to live in denial...
14 March 2012, 13:29
46
How can you slauter over 15 thousand people with kids and women and call this a victory? you must be paid by Bashar to write this or that you are not hauman at all. either an animal or a robot with no feelings. your calling for the fear of that the minorties in syria? is your doing. Bashar is the one that making sure that they are not safe and that he is protecting them, exactly like the Mafia.. no difference whatsoever. The mafia at its best........... shame on you LOVE4Bashar you are eaither gay or a robot to love that guy. sick either way
14 March 2012, 14:25
21
اللهم إن في سورية أطفال .. قتلت
اللهم إن في سورية أعراضاً .. إنتهكت
اللهم إن في سورية شباب .. ذبحت
اللهم إن في سورية شيوخاً .. أذلت
اللهم إن لم تنصرهم فمن ينصرهم ..
اللهم إننا عبيدك قد تبرئنا من حولنا وقوتنا وأنخنا همومنا عندك يارب يارب يارب
وارباه يا ناصر الضعفاء ياناصر اليتامى والثكالى يا ناصر من لاناصر له
نسألك أن تفرجها علينا في سورية وتحق الحق وتطهر الخبيث من الطيب وأن تزيل الغمة عن هذه الأمة ..
اللهم آمين .. آمين .. آمين يارب العالمين وصلى الله على سيدنا محمد وعلى آله وصحبه وسلم
14 March 2012, 14:42
25
The FSA lost a battle but not the war. Inshallah soon you will see Assad and family dragged through Damascus like the animals that they are.
14 March 2012, 15:14
13
Do not call them an "Opposition". An Opposition to what? They are armed terrorists that have risen against the state to serve their Sunni Mastersbin Saudia Arabia, who are serving their Christian masters in The US, who is serving their Jewish masters in Israel. CRUSH THEM. We do not need traitors.
14 March 2012, 15:22
12
To the TRUTH- How about the US and Israel. They have been killing Christian Arabs for decades. But you don't care right? As long as its Americans and Jews killing Arab Christians, it's okay right? You are such a hypocrite. NO one has killed more in the name of GOD than Christians. You forget the crusades or do you just like to remember history as it suits your cause?
14 March 2012, 15:38
43
To all Syrian people supporters
Don't you see there is something that doesn't add up about the oppostion.
Before asking for outside help - shouldn't the SNC be asking itself the following questions: Why after 1 year of uprising hasn't the sunni inhabitants of Damascus and Halab overwhelmingly risen against the regime?
Why hasn't oppostion been able to sway the majority of Alawites, Christians, Druze, and other minorities to their cause?
14 March 2012, 15:38
34
I mean come on, they all know that the regime will collapse sooner or later, so why would a portion of the sunnies and most of the minorities choose to sink with the ship then to jump ship and join the oppostion???
What is SNC offering to these group that didn't appeal to these groups to save themselves and go with the oppostion???
Unless what the opposition is offering is so Horrid (Moslem brotherhood shariaa law type regime maybe), that they think they have better hope sticking with the sinking regime than to join it.
That's what the west is hinting when they say "The oppostion is divided"
If opposition can fix that, then they would be able to topple the regime in days instead of months. failing that, you are looking at a long bloody civil war.
14 March 2012, 16:30
00
One more nail in the cofin for all who aspire for freedom in the Middle East. Shame on the west, no wonder they keep losing credibility.
14 March 2012, 17:13
30
تكفى يا مجاهدين تكفى لا تهادي تكفى يا مجاهدين في الجنة حورية يلا مسلم قوم في الجنة حورية
14 March 2012, 17:18
30
حنرجع لكابل لا بوش لا باوال يا كفر لا تحاول في الجنة حورية سلامي على طالبان يا نعمة الرحمان سنة و القران في الجنة حورية
14 March 2012, 17:20
11
All this blood for ONE person to rule and to remain in position to massacre and destroy hundreds of families...
When i see arabs supporting dictator, the only consolation i find is
that the German, supposedly more intelligent and civilized than arabs, blindly followed Hitler....
how sad reality can be...
14 March 2012, 17:22
11
The Syrian army overruns Idlib!!! Did you read that? Let me repeat: THE SYRIAN ARMY OVERRUNS IDLIB!!! Then the Assad regime is falling faster that anybody thought!
14 March 2012, 19:47
11
The army overruns Idlib and three biggies of the "opposition" disowned it. Wow! The regime seems to be falling more quickly than even Dr. Hebela Wmecheh predicted!
14 March 2012, 21:08
10
Dear So called mouwaten.
For a moment ,let s forget about what is happening in Syria.
How can you support a regime that slaughtered lebanese ppl?
I just cannot believe it mate.
Honestly ,your comments are an insult to every single lebanese killed on the hands of this regime.
No offence ,but i suggest and out of respect for your lebanese brothers .....
15 March 2012, 08:35
00
Here's a friendly message to the pathetics of Lebanon First from the End and March Arriere: Idlib wa Itla7. Just another miscalculation, but then, who can count beyond infinity?
