MESOP Syria Daily: Assad Forces & Hezbollah Inside Yabroud
FOREIGN INTERVENTION : IRAN VIA HEZBOLLAH (WATCH * CLICK PICTURES / VIDEOS)
By Scott Lucas March 16, 2014 13:40 Updated – LATEST: Video: Aftermath of Bombing of Maarat al-Nu’man in Idlib Province on Saturday
UPDATE 1230 GMT: Well-placed sources confirm, “Insurgents have started retreating to prepared positions. Final fall of Yabroud is only a matter of hours.”
Hezbollah’s Al-Manar TV broadcasting from northeastern Yabroud:
Pro-Assad forces replace insurgent flag with regime’s banner:
Syrian troops and Hezbollah have finally entered the city of Yabroud, after a month-long offensive.
Al-Mayadeen showed footage of Assad forces moving through fields, asserting they were at the eastern gate of the city, the largest in the Qalamoun region between Damascus and the Lebanese border. The troops reportedly took hills overlooking Yabroud, surrounding it on three sides.
State news agency SANA goes farther this morning, claiming the Syrian army advanced 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) into the city and “established control of several blocks of buildings before reaching Yabround roundabout in the center”. The article does not indicate if the troops remain in Yabroud.
A “military source” told Reuters that troops were clearing out insurgents and dismantling roadside bombs.
Abu al-Huda al-Homsi, an activist in Qalamoun, said Syrian forces entered the city under a cover of aerial and artillery attacks: “They used a scorched-earth policy, showering us with tens of shells every day until he fighters were forced to withdraw.”
The opposition Local Coordination Committees confirmed Syrian troops and Hezbollah were inside Yabroud, but deny the city has fallen.
A member of the Islamist faction Jabhat al-Nusra in Yabroud told Al Jazeera that insurgents were withdrawing to nearby villages such as Hosh Arab, Rankous, and Flita. However, well-placed sources said that the fighters were not retreating, but helping evacuate civilians from the city.
The Syrian military has bombarded Yabroud for weeks with barrel bombs and rockets. Thousands of the city’s 60,000 residents have fled for Lebanon.
Pro-regime report:
Claimed footage of regime forces in action:
Fighting on the Rima Farms front:
Videos: Regime Airstrikes Throughout Idlib Province on Saturday
Smoke rises from a regime attack on Jabal al-Zawiya:
Graphic footage has been posted of bodies strewn across the site of an airstrike on Maarat al-Nu’man.
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