Hezbollah blamed for The Syrian opposition retreat in coastal areas Zaid Benjamin President Assad forces have regained the upper-hand in the ongoing battle in the Syrian coastal areas where Mr. Assad hails from, and an Alawite-majority community is living. In the zenith of the confrontation, the opposition overran 11 towns near the southern borders of the Turkish Hatay province, but the state-run news agency and several activists at the region said the opposition are losing control quickly. The rise of the opposition groups in the region came after Assad forces combined with Hezbollah fighters expelled the opposition from several neighborhoods in the city of Homs, one of the Syrian revolution strongholds with Sunni-dominated population. “We have a surge in Hezbollah’s participation here” one activist said asking not to disclose his identity for fear of reprisals from the opposition groups if his comments are deemed as an attempt to lower the moral of the opposition fighters in the region. “The opposition’s control is deteriorating in the same pace of its rise in the area,” the activist said, “ We still have two towns; Astraba and Oubain,” he added. It was not clear if the rise of Hezbollah’s participation in the ongoing face-off has to do with a commitment made by the Lebanese group’s Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah last week to ramp-up the number of his fighters in Syria; in the wake of a blast that left scores of people dead in Hezbollah stronghold at the southern district of Beirut. According to the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, The Islamic State of Iraq and Levante and Jabhat al-Nusra, both affiliated with al-Qaeda, are leading the battle in that mountainous region which lies few kilometers away from al-Qardaha town, the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s birthplace Another opposition source said 128 foreign fighters killed during the 10-day-old clashes in the area, among them Tunisians, Libyans and five Europeans. Ammar al-Hassan, an anti-Assad activist from Lattakia, said in a post on his Facebook page that some fighters did not sleep for three consecutive days due to the ferocity of the confrontations. The state-news agency said government forces restored security to the towns of al-Khrata, al-Khanzouriyeh, Barouda, Jabal al-Shabaan, al-Hamyoushiyeh, al-Ballouta and al-Sheikh Nabhan. on Friday, the state media said Assad forces regained control of Bait al-Shakouhi and Abo Makk. “There is no enough ammunition and its difficult to maintain the line of support” one activist said referring to the same obstacle that prevented the opposition for advancing in Damascus and its suburbs, “the support from the opposition’s chief of staff is a mere lie, he appeared in the region for one hour only to tape his appearance and post it on YouTube, and he quickly returned to Turkey” referring to Salim Idriss, the U.S.-backed chief of staff who visited the region lately. The opposition groups in the region blamed the U.S.- backed Syrian National Coalition for not giving the sufficient backup to the fighters of the coastal areas, fearing a strong outcry form the international community will ensue because the region has so many minorities. Others fear that an attack on the region, a house for a million displaced Syrians, could prompt a new wave of refugees into Turkey and Lebanon, both have no stomach for more refugees. In the meantime, the Syrian opposition coalition seems busy setting the stage for a new interim prime minister, by organizing the opposition groups in his city Deir ez-Zor Ahmed al-Tama is the only candidate for the position put forth by a Saudi-backed faction inside the coalition, led by the secular opposition figure Michele Kilo. Some coalition members say al-Tama had to go a long road before gaining the final approval. Al-Tama’s nomination is another sign for the growing role of Saudi Arabia in the Middle East, after Riyadh said it will back the Egyptian army in its fight against the Muslim Brotherhood.
Posted on: Mon, 19 Aug 2013 04:43:25 +0000
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