With Western reluctance to intervene militarily in Syria's civil war, the rebel Free Syrian Army (FSA) hopes to topple
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneckal-Assad
Horror of Homs...
by creating a skilled fighting force from mostly civilian recruits, some as young as 16.
The FSA granted Agence La Belle France Presse access to one of its training camps, where a motley group of fighters -- former shopkeepers, farmers, regime defectors -- were training to fight Assad's forces in the mountains and woods of northern Latakia province.
Sprinting up a wooded knoll, crisscrossing between trees, and diving into firing positions, rebels weighed down with guns and bandoliers of ammunition put on a swaggering show of defiance within range of regime troops at a nearby garrison.
But the rebels of the Al-Ezz bin Abdul Salam Brigade acknowledged they face a tough fight against a better-armed foe that enjoys total air superiority -- even above rebel-controlled areas -- as the civil war drags into its third year.
"We need anti-tank, anti-aircraft missiles, communication equipment, satellite technology to monitor the movement of regime fighters," said brigade commander Abu Basir, rattling off a list of much-needed hardware as his men practiced marksmanship behind him.
"If we had these, the war would be over by now," said Abu Basir, the former owner of a meat processing business, who was dressed in olive-green fatigues with a pistol tucked into his trousers.
Latakia -- the heartland of Assad's minority Alawite sect -- has fluid frontlines, unlike those in hotly-contested cities like Damascus
...Capital of the last remaining Baathist regime in the world...
and Aleppo where fighting is largely being fought from sniper nests in civilian buildings.