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| Syria-Lebanon-Iran |
| Syrian rebels seize key area on Turkey border |
| 2014-03-25 |
| Syrian rebels seized the Kasab village and border crossing with Turkey on Monday, an NGO said, as the regime launched fresh air strikes in a bid to halt the opposition advance. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the rebels and their ally Al Nusra Front were now in full control of Kasab, the only border crossing with Turkey in sensitive Latakia province, President Bashar Al Assad's heartland. The crossing was the last functioning border post with Turkey to slip from regime control. "The rebel fighters are in control of Kasab's main square. There is fighting on the edges of Kasab, but the rebels are in control of the village" and border crossing, Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman said, four days into a rebel offensive. According to a security source in Damascus, however, the village has not fallen. "The situation is unclear, the fighting continues, and neither side is in control of the village," the source said. The battle for Kasab, launched by rebels and Al Nusra Front on Friday, killed at least 130 regime and opposition fighters on Saturday and Sunday alone, said the Observatory. The rebel advance came despite Syria's air force carrying out strikes and dropping barrel bombs on Monday on their positions in the Kasab area and in nearby Jabal Turkman, said the Observatory. The army also used tanks to shell the Kasab frontier post, said the Observatory. "The regime is very angry," said activist Omar Al Jeblawi. "They are using all their force — army and paramilitary — to try to stop the rebels, who in turn are trying to advance towards the sea." Most of Kasab's majority Armenian residents have fled the village due to the fighting and air attacks, Abdel Rahman said. Kasab is the last remaining Armenian village in the Middle East, according to Syria expert Fabrice Balanche. After three years of civil war, Syria's government now controls only nine of the 19 official land border crossings with its neighbours Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq and Turkey. Only one crossing into Turkey remains in government hands, but it is closed on the Turkish side. |
| Posted by:Steve White |