Syrian Civil War: News

his entire forum has been hijacked by some Asians with vested interest who are posting their vile & disgusting material to vilify Europeans.

Syrian government forces captured a historic mosque in the central city of Homs on Saturday, expelling rebel forces who
had been in control of the 13th century landmark for more than a year and dealing a symbolic blow to opposition forces.

State-run news agency SANA quoted an unnamed military official as saying that troops took control of the Khalid Ibn
al-Walid Mosque in the heavily disputed northern neighborhood of Khaldiyeh.

Syrian TV aired a report Saturday night with footage from inside the mosque, showing heavy damage and the tomb's dome
knocked out. The footage showed debris strewn on the floor and a portion of the mosque appeared to have been burned.

The mosque, famous for its nine domes and two minarets, has been a symbol for rebels in the city that is known as
"the capital of the revolution." On Monday, government troops shelled the mosque, damaging the tomb of Ibn al-Walid,
a revered figure in Islam.

After capturing the strategic town of Qusair near the Lebanon border last month, government troops launched an offensive
on rebel-held areas in Homs, Syria's third largest city, late in June. They have been pushing into Khaldiyeh and other neighborhoods
in the Old City that have been under opposition control since 2011.

Concerns are particularly focused on Homs, Syria's third city, which western observers believe is likely to fall to the regime
military and Hezbollah by the end of the summer, in what would be the most striking gain yet by resurgent pro-Assad forces during the civil war.

All property records for Homs were destroyed in a fire earlier this month at the office of the city's land registry and residents
fear they can no longer enforce a claim to their land and homes.

"What else could be going on?" asked one resident who refused to be identified. "This is the most secure area of the city and
it is the only building that has been burned. A conspiracy is underway."

Former staff at the office say the records existed only on paper and had not yet been digitalised. Eyewitnesses in the
Bab al-Hood district where the building is located, and several employees, reported seeing flames on the higher floors of
the building on 5 July, where the files were archived, while regime forces were positioned on lower floors.

Action around Menagh has slowed. We used to get daily videos from the FSA in the area. Since the first reports that a SAA convoy reached the base, FSA videos from Menagh have become a rarity.

Three months after winning the strategic town of Al Qusayr, the combined Syrian and Hizballah armies have captured the historic Muslim
Brotherhood city of Homs, 162 kilometers northeast of the capital Damascus. DEBKAfile’s military and intelligence sources report that
Sunday, July 28, jeeps with recoilless guns, pick-up trucks with anti air guns - all loaded with defeated rebel Farouq Brigades fighters
were to be seen fleeing the city. As they fled, Syrian and Hizballah army tanks facing no resistance rolled into the center of Homs,
the old city and the Khladiyeh district and hoisted images of President Bashar Assad.
The fall of Homs, which the rebels designated from the start of the uprising “capital of the revolution,” opens the way for Syrian-Hizballah
forces to move north on Aleppo, Syria’s largest city.
Aleppo’s capture would grant Assad a decisive victory in the civil war and confer on the Lebanese Shiite terrorist Hizballah for the
first time the standing of an armed force with strategic capabilities, as well as giving the Iran-Syrian-Hizballah alliance a major boost.
Early Monday, Syrian ground-to-ground missiles were pounding rebel fortifications Aleppo to soften their resistance, while Syrian
air force
helicopters struck Kurdish PYG units ranged along the Syrian-Turkish border. Although the helicopters flew over the frontier, they
did not run into any interference from the Turkish air force, its artillery emplacements or the NATO Patriot anti-missile batteries deployed there.
The Kurdish units were targeted to prevent them moving into Aleppo in defense of the city’s Kurdish quarters against the Syrian
army-Hizballah advance.
After the fall of Homs and the fast approaching Syrian assault on Aleppo, Washington, Jerusalem and Ankara have run out of time for
quibbling whether to step into the Syrian conflict. The critical decision facing them now is whether to save Aleppo from a savage
Syrian army-Hizballah onslaught that will determine the final fate of the war, or continue to stand aside.
The various tactics outlined by top US soldier Gen. Martin Dempsey last week for US military intervention at a cost of $1 billion
per month have been overtaken by events. The Obama administration must now decide very quickly whether Assad and
his Russian and Iranian backers should be allowed to win the Syrian civil war or stopped at Aleppo.

medo wrote:It's interesting, that there is not much news in western medias about FSA-Kurds fightings in northeast Syria.

medo wrote:It's interesting, that there is not much news in western medias about FSA-Kurds fightings in northeast Syria.

As Sa'iqa wrote:FSA looted about 150 ATGM missles (including Kornets) + an unknown number of launchers from 3 ammo storage sites near Damascus.

I guess that they will significantly decrease the number of SAA armored vehicles operating in this region...