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Hezbollah, Assad troops enter rebel-held border city
[ARABNEWS] The Syrian army and Lebanese Hezbollah fighters said on Sunday they had entered the rebel-held city of Zabadani on the second day of a major offensive to capture the border area around the Beirut-Damascus highway.The army, backed by Hezbollah, has long sought to wrest control of Zabadani, near the Lebanese border, from the rebels who have held it since 2012, a year after the start of the Syrian civil war. The Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah's al Manar television station said its fighters and the Syrian army had entered the Jamaiyat district in the western part of Zabadani, about 45 km (30 miles) northwest of the capital Damascus. Footage showed ground troops entering parts of the city lying in a lush agricultural plain surrounded by a mountain range shared to the east with Leb. The offensive began on Saturday and was preceded by several days of aerial and artillery bombing of outposts held by a coalition of mainly Sunni Moslem fighters defending the city. The Syrian army also said on state television ... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe? their fighters had seized the Sultani district, east of the city, while Hezbollah said it now had encircled the northern portion. Earlier the Syrian army said: "Tens of bad boyz were potted and injured" in the assault. The Syrian army, aided by Hezbollah, last March captured the western mountains overlooking Zabadani but rebels who control the eastern hilltops have used rocket launchers to hit army and Hezbollah posts. The latest offensive is part of Syrian  Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneckal-Assad Light of the Alawites... 's effort to shore up his control over western Syria. The capture of the city would secure a safe arms and troops corridor for Hezbollah, whose military role inside Syria has been growing steadily since the start of the conflict. The area around the once popular resort city was part of a major supply route for weapons sent by Syria to Hezbollah before the 2011 outbreak of the Syrian conflict, which has killed more than 200,000 people. The Syrian army is fighting on several other fronts. As well as battling rebels around the southern city of Daraa and the northern city of Aleppo, it has been fighting Daesh (Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allaharound with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not reallyMoslems.... ) as the holy warrior group attempts to seize government-held areas of the northeastern city of Hasaka. Posted by: Fred 2015-07-06 |
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