Syria forces ready Aleppo assault after Qusair win
11 Jun 2013 6:07 AM IST
Syrian troops buoyed by victory in Qusair were preparing to launch a northern offensive, a security source said, as the conflict came to Beirut’s streets where a young demonstrator was killed.
At a protest outside the Iranian embassy against the Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah’s direct involvement in the Syrian conflict, a man was shot and fatally wounded in the first such shooting in Beirut linked to the 26-month war.
A Syrian security force told media that after government troops supported by Hezbollah fighters captured the strategic region of Qusair on the Lebanese border, the regime’s next target was Aleppo province in the north. ‘It is likely the battle for Aleppo will start in the coming hours or days, and its aim is to reclaim the towns and villages in the province,’ the source said on condition of anonymity.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights has reported the regime was deploying ‘thousands of soldiers’ in Aleppo province, aiming to recapture rebel posts and sever supply routes from neighbouring Turkey.
On the international front, Britain said Syrian government gains on the ground had made organising peace talks harder, as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed Syria’s conflict by telephone. The announcement comes five days after the army expelled rebels from Qusair in central-west Syria.
Syrians were shown on Sunday firing into the air and waving portraits of President Bashar al-Assad in Qusair to celebrate the government’s victory, in footage broadcast by Hezbollah’s
Al-Manar television.
Syrian daily Al-Watan said the army has ‘started to deploy at a large scale in Aleppo province, in preparation for a battle that will be fought in the city and its outskirts’. Rebels last July launched a massive assault on Aleppo, once Syria’s commercial hub. The city has since suffered daily regime bombardment and clashes.
Al-Watan also said ‘the Syrian army will take advantage of its experience in Qusair and Eastern Ghouta to advance in the (central) province of Hama and Homs’ nearby.
At a protest outside the Iranian embassy against the Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah’s direct involvement in the Syrian conflict, a man was shot and fatally wounded in the first such shooting in Beirut linked to the 26-month war.
A Syrian security force told media that after government troops supported by Hezbollah fighters captured the strategic region of Qusair on the Lebanese border, the regime’s next target was Aleppo province in the north. ‘It is likely the battle for Aleppo will start in the coming hours or days, and its aim is to reclaim the towns and villages in the province,’ the source said on condition of anonymity.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights has reported the regime was deploying ‘thousands of soldiers’ in Aleppo province, aiming to recapture rebel posts and sever supply routes from neighbouring Turkey.
On the international front, Britain said Syrian government gains on the ground had made organising peace talks harder, as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed Syria’s conflict by telephone. The announcement comes five days after the army expelled rebels from Qusair in central-west Syria.
Syrians were shown on Sunday firing into the air and waving portraits of President Bashar al-Assad in Qusair to celebrate the government’s victory, in footage broadcast by Hezbollah’s
Al-Manar television.
Syrian daily Al-Watan said the army has ‘started to deploy at a large scale in Aleppo province, in preparation for a battle that will be fought in the city and its outskirts’. Rebels last July launched a massive assault on Aleppo, once Syria’s commercial hub. The city has since suffered daily regime bombardment and clashes.
Al-Watan also said ‘the Syrian army will take advantage of its experience in Qusair and Eastern Ghouta to advance in the (central) province of Hama and Homs’ nearby.
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