Beirut: Al Qaeda’s Syrian affiliate and its allies seized the last major government-held city in Idlib province yesterday, in a blow that could expose the regime’s coastal heartland to rebel attack.
The capture of Jisr Al Shughur in the northwestern province comes nearly a month after the same coalition of opposition forces, known as the “Army of Conquest”, overran the provincial capital.
The city’s fall opens up a strategic assault route for the rebels to neighbouring Latakia province on the Mediterranean coast, a bastion of President Bashar Al Assad’s regime, analysts said.
Shortly after the city’s capture, a string of villages in neighbouring Hama province also fell to rebels.
“(Al Qaeda affiliate) Al Nusra Front and the Islamist brigades now have complete control of Jisr Al Shughur,” Syrian Observatory for Human Rights chief Rami Abdel Rahman said.
“There are some ongoing battles outside the city, to the south and east.”
The Britain-based monitoring group said the bodies of at least 60 regime loyalists had been seen on the streets of the city, which was overrun by thousands of rebels.
In the wake of the capture, the Observatory said government planes carried out at least 30 air strikes on and around the city.
“At least 10 people have been killed in the city in the strikes, both civilians and fighters, and dozens more are injured, with the toll expected to rise,” Abdel Rahman said.
The Observatory also reported that government forces summarily executed at least 23 prisoners in a detention facility before they withdrew.
State media did not acknowledge the city’s fall, saying only that “units from our valiant army successfully redeployed on the outskirts of Jisr Al Shughur to avoid casualties among innocent civilians”.
State television later reported that troops were “locked in fierce battles at the entrance of Jisr Al Shughur and axes leading to it”.
The jihadists, meanwhile, hailed victory on their official Twitter accounts.
“The mujahedeen have entered the city centre. The city has been liberated,” Al Nusra said.
One of the group’s official accounts published multiple photographs of Al Nusra fighters in the city, some holding their black flag and others reciting “prayers of thanks” for the city’s capture.
It also published a photo of some of the prisoners reportedly executed by government forces, showing at least 14 bodies, some piled on top of one another, in a room with blood-smeared walls.
Jisr Al Shughur became the regime’s de facto provincial capital after the Army of Conquest coalition overran Idlib city last month.
With the loss of Jisr Al Shughur, the regime holds only a few areas in the east of the province, including the town of Ariha, a military base in Al Mastumah and an airbase at Abu Duhur.
But an activist from Idlib said that both Ariha and the Al Mastumah base were now under rebel siege, along with another military base called Al Qarmid.
While last month’s capture of Idlib city was hailed by many in the opposition because it was only the second provincial capital entirely lost by the regime, the seizure of Jisr Al Shughur may prove to be strategically more important.
“This city is more important than Idlib city because it is close to Latakia province and regions controlled by the regime in the northeast part of Hama province,” Abdel Rahman said.
It lies on the road leading to the regime’s Latakia bastion, and is also close to the border with Turkey, which is a leading backer of the uprising against Assad.
“For the opposition as a whole, it would open up the route into Latakia from Idlib and Hama, which could significantly enhance any future offensive on Latakia,” said Charles Lister, a visiting fellow at Brookings Doha Centre and a Syria specialist.
“At the end of the day, this needs to be seen as more than just an offensive on Jisr Al Shughur, there’s a much bigger strategy playing out.”
Yesterday afternoon, the Observatory said several rebel groups had seized at least five villages in Hama province not far from Jisr Al Shughur.
The group said the advance appeared to be linked to the city’s capture, although Al Nusra was not involved in the Hama fighting.
AFP
BEIRUT/AMMAN: Rustom Ghazali, Syria’s last chief of intelligence in Lebanon who was a suspect in the killing of Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, has died in Damascus, Lebanese media reported.
A Lebanese source with ties to Damascus also said that Ghazali had died on Friday. The cause and circumstances of his death were not immediately clear. There was no mention of his death on state media and the Syrian government made no statement.
Ghazali, in his 60s, succeeded Ghazi Kanaan as head of military intelligence in Lebanon in 2002 during Syria’s tutelage over Lebanon, which lasted until Damascus pulled its troops from the country in 2005.
He was one of Syria’s key operatives in Lebanon when Damascus was the country’s main power broker and deeply involved in internal political affairs after the end of civil war in 1990.
Lebanon’s ties with Syria hit rock bottom after the assassination of Hariri in 2005 and accusations of Syrian involvement, which Damascus has always denied.
Demonstrations in Lebanon over the killing of Hariri forced Syria to withdraw its 15,000 soldiers in April that year, ending three decades of military presence in its smaller neighbour.
UN investigators questioned Ghazali in September 2005 as a suspect in the Hariri killing. He was widely believed to be on the list of people to be brought to the tribunal to testify in the coming months.
Opposition reports say he had been dismissed over his alleged opposition to the prominent role played by Lebanese Shia group Hezbollah and Iran in the Syrian offensive to wrest back large parts of southern Syria from rebel hands.
Several sources said that Ghazali had a fallout with the powerful head of Military Intelligence Rafik Shehadeh.
Ghazali was born in 1952 in the village of Qarfa in Syria’s Deraa province. He was appointed in 2002 as head of Syrian military intelligence in Lebanon replacing Ghazi Kanaan, who was made interior minister. In 2005, Kanaan was found dead on his desk. The authorities said he committed suicide.
Ghazali was appointed head of political intelligence in 2012 shortly after a powerful blast killed and injured a number of top military and security officials.
REUTERS
