WEST KURDISTAN : JBEYSA OIL FIELD NOW IN KURDISH HANDS

AP / REUTERS  – 15.2.2013 –  BEIRUT:   Syrian rebels captured most of an oil field in the energy-rich northeast on Thursday, the latest in a string of strategic conquests this week that also included a dam and the defenses around a major airport.

The opposition fighters trying to oust authoritarian President Bashar Assad also captured the town of Shadadah, near the Jbeysa oil field in hotly contested Hasaka province in Syrian Kurdistan region, according to Rami Abdul-Rahman, head of the Britain-based activist group Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The oil field is in an energy-rich area along Syria’s border with Iraqi Kurdistan. Abdul-Rahman said the rebels captured about 70 percent of the oil field but there was still sporadic gunfire in the area.