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Syria army retains grip on border gate with Northern Iraq
Syrian rebel information operations have taken more than a few pointers from Pallywood, but the facts on the ground remain pretty hairy for them. The departure of loyal minorities towards Tartus and Latakia is possibly so that (1) they can be accounted for and mobilized for a universal draft of anti-Sunni Arab minorities and (2) the regime can flatten the rest of the country with high explosives without any fear of hitting friendlies. If the rebels are to win, NATO will need to jump in soon. This is the relative calm before the storm.(Reuters) - Syrian truck driver Abu Sara used to feel scared when he crossed the border into Iraq, fearing attacks in a country gripped by sectarian violence. Now, as he exits a Syria in even greater turmoil, he feels a sense of relief. "Us drivers, we feel the danger of the road as we enter the Syrian territories, but we feel safe when we are near the crossings between the two sides," he said at the northern Iraqi border crossing in Rabia, 100 km (62 miles) west of the Iraqi city of Mosul. Rabia was still in the hands of government forces, he said on Friday night. The Syrian flag fluttered above the border crossing and a huge mural of Hafez al-Assad, the late father of embattled Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, was on display. Other crossings with Iraq and Turkey have fallen in the hands of the rebels, the first time they have held sway over Syria's frontiers. On Thursday, the rebels claimed control of the Abu Kamal crossing with Iraq - one of the most important trade routes in the Middle East and the main border post on the Baghdad-Damascus highway - and of the crossings at Jarablus and Bab al-Hawa at the border with Turkey. With the rebels making gains in the fighting, some Iraqi officials were reported as saying that the rebels had captured all four border posts with Iraq, while others said only Abu Kamal had fallen. Abu Sara said the roads around Rabia remained dangerous. He parks his truck close to Syrian military checkpoints to feel safer, he added. "Every day we are exposed to the danger of the road, we face bandits, not necessarily armed operations. But this indicates how fragile the security situation is in Syria - it is not able to control the roads and the thieves." Posted by: Zhang Fei 2012-07-21 |
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