BEIRUT: Syrian insurgents pressed their campaign in Idlib to inside the provincial capital Friday, as rebel groups and anti-regime activists published footage purporting to show residents welcoming their advance.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an anti-regime activist group, said at least 14 rebels and jihadis and six regime personnel were killed in the fighting, adding that the actual casualty figure was likely to be significantly higher.

The Nusra Front, Ahrar al-Sham and half a dozen other Islamist groups launched a concerted attack to seize the provincial capital this week, calling their new coalition the Army of Conquest.

“The fighters have advanced on the northwestern and southeastern sides of the city,” said Rami Abdel-Rahman, head of the Britain-based Observatory. “There are very violent clashes, and last night 26 militants and four regime soldiers were killed,” he told AFP.

An activist from the area said civilians were trapped in their homes.

“The humanitarian situation is very difficult. There are refugees from other parts of the country who are in Idlib,” Ibrahim al-Idlibi said.

The rebels have advanced using “street fighting,” taking control of the city’s edges, neighborhood by neighborhood, said another activist, Khaled Hanoun, who is in contact with rebels in Idlib.

According to Abdel-Rahman, the Syrian army had sent in reinforcements and carried out airstrikes on rebel positions on Idlib’s outskirts.

Some anti-regime sources said that rebel groups had managed to lay siege to a group of military personnel holed up in the post office building. They also claimed that some groups of regime forces, made up of the army and paramilitary groups, were also withdrawing from the city and heading south.

Government planes pounded parts of Idlib province with airstrikes during the day as the fighting raged, the Observatory and anti-regime activists said.

Friday protests were held in some opposition-controlled areas to celebrate the rebel gains in Idlib.

If the provincial capital falls to the rebels it would be the second in the country to do so during the four-year-conflict.

The first, Raqqa, was later taken over by ISIS militants after regime forces were defeated there.

While some 200,000 people resided in Idlib before the conflict, many have become refugees elsewhere in the province during the war.

In the south, this week’s rebel seizure of the town of Busra in Deraaprovince has prompted a call by Druze spiritual leaders for the government to distribute weapons to the minority community, which observers say feels threatened by the insurgents’ advance.

The statement issued by senior religious figures said, “We will ask for the suitable arms and logistical support immediately from the concerned authorities in the Syrian government and also ask for direct supervision over training.”

The Druze have largely remained neutral during the war – very few have joined rebel ranks, while others have joined pro-regime paramilitary groups.

However, the overwhelming majority of the residents of the province of Swaida have avoided performing their obligatory military service. Some mid-level Druze religious figures have also complained that the government failed to provide sufficient support for its paramilitary groups during earlier military operations.

Busra is located some 20 kilometers south of Swaida.

Elsewhere, a regime airstrike on the Damascus suburb of Harasta was blamed for the deaths of six people, the Observatory said. The casualty figure was expected to rise because of the severe nature of the injuries, it added.

The Observatory said that Thursday’s nationwide death toll stood at 239 people, the second-highest of the year. Forty-four rebels and 88 government troops or paramilitaries were among the dead.

 

 

http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Middle-East/2015/Mar-28/292466-street-to-street-fighting-begins-as-rebels-enter-idlib.ashx