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Syria's desperate rebels flee new northern offensive by Assad's army
Far from bowing to international pressure over the brutal siege of Homs, Syrian strongman Bashar al-Assad is extending his military clampdown across the country. he last defenders of the free Syrian village of Ain al-Beida were huddling from a biting wind in a Turkish border town. They were still covered with mud from their desperate escape over the mountains. The previous day, the unit of 50 ragged fighters were driven out of their village by 500 Syrian soldiers backed with tanks. Afterwards, President Bashar al-Assads forces burnt the buildings and planted landmines. "Weve never seen them fight like that before, they were crazed," said Jamal, a rebel commander, on Saturday. "You shot them and they didnt drop. They must have been drugged or something." Many other villages in Idlib province, in the north along the Turkish border, got the same treatment last week. While the world's attention was focused on the horror being inflicted on Homs, where Syrian troops were accused of "medieval barbarity" by David Cameron, President Assad expanded his scorched-earth policy northwards in an apparent bid to destroy the rebel movement altogether. "There are soldiers everywhere now," said one man who escaped out of Idlib province on Friday night. "They have flooded the countryside, shelling the villages, searching and raiding everywhere." Posted by: tipper 2012-03-03 |
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