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March 4th, 2012 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda
Witnesses described finding beheaded bodies left in village streets, badly
wounded locals trapped in their homes unable to reach hospitals, and bands
of militia roaming the countryside. Fears were growing that these armed
groups were massacring populations sympathetic to the rebels, although with
communications blocked and only a trickle of refugees crossing the
snow-covered mountainous frontier, newly sown with landmines, it was
impossible to be sure what was really happening.
What was clear, though, was that some of the main rebel enclaves in northern
Syria have been overrun, in an area which had been spoken of as a possible
rebel stronghold where the Free Syrian Army (FSA) could be trained and
equipped.
“It is very dangerous now,” said Wasim Sabbagh, 35, a spokesman with
the Free Syrian Army. “One of our commanders couldn’t get across the
border into Syria, and he is one of the bravest men we have. The Assad
forces are everywhere.” News of the northern offensive came as
government troops ignored international pleas to relax their stranglehold on
the Baba Amr district of Homs, the former rebel stronghold that they finally
surrounded on Thursday.
Up to 4,000 people have been trapped there for days without access to food,
water or medical supplies, yet an aid convoy from the International
Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) was denied access for a second day
yesterday.
Syrian commanders on the ground said it was because of fears that the fleeing
rebel troops had sown the area with booby traps, although rebel activists
claimed the delay was to give the army time to cover up evidence of summary
executions carried out in recent days.
“We are not going in today, negotiations continue to try to get in
tomorrow,” Sean Maguire, a spokesman for the ICRC told The Sunday
Telegraph last night. “One of the reasons we were given was the
security situation on the ground; we are not in a position to make a
judgment on that.
“But since we have not yet been into Baba Amr, we can’t make any
assessment of the humanitarian or human rights situation, which is
unfortunate as we believe there are pressing needs there.”
Meanwhile, diplomatic pressure continued to mount on President Assad. The
Foreign Secretary, William Hague, said the Syrian regime’s refusal to allow
humanitarian aid into Baba Amr showed how “criminal” it had
become. China, which has so far vetoed United Nations Security Council
resolutions condemning Damascus, urged both sides to stop fighting and “launch
an inclusive political dialogue with no preconditions”.
As they did so, members of the FSA who had fought in Baba Amr spoke of the
enormity of the military arsenal deployed against them.
“They used more firepower in the last five days than they did in the
first three weeks of besieging the city,” said Omar al Homsi, a senior
FSA fighter who escaped last week to Lebanon. “They were using tanks
equipped with rockets with a 3km range, and in the final days they were
using multiple rocket lauchers.”
Three days before he left, he added, he witnessed a government unit turn
against their division. “We found two tanks smouldering, bodies
scattered on the ground,” he said.
“Intercepting the army’s military frequencies, we heard officers
complaining to their superiors in Damascus that their men would not follow
orders. They complained that their men were under orders to deploy rockets
on a particular area but had refused.”
The regime had prepared for the risk of large-scale defections, however. “In
the five days of fighting, the regime replaced the battalions fighting us
four times. After a day of fighting, they would swap the battalions, their
soldiers had to fight for no more than 36 hours.”
While a tense calm hung over Baba Amr yesterday, other districts of Homs came
under heavy mortar and machinegun fire, adding to fears that the military
campaign was being ratcheted up. Further north, the city of Idlib, another
major rebel stronghold, also came under shellfire, prompting talk that it
was about to become “the next Homs”.
“They are slaughtering people,” said Mr Sabbagh, the Free Syrian
Army spokesman, listing other places that had he said had been attacked.
Kafur Nabel, a village famous for its witty banners mocking President Assad,
was shelled, while another town, Darkush, was surrounded by tanks. Wounded
civilians were trapped and could not reach treatment, Mr Sabbagh said.
One of the most troubling reports was from the village of Kurim, in the hills
near the Turkish border, where rebels fear a massacre may have been carried
out. The quiet farming hamlet, whose population is Sunni, is surrounded by
villages populated by members of President Assad’s fellow Alawite sect. Many
Alawites in the area have been armed by the government, which is accused of
stirring up sectarian tensions. Mr Sabbagh said nobody had come out of Kurim
for several days, although the village was hard to get in touch with as it
was cut off from the FSA.
Poorly armed and largely untrained, the rebel fighters have been unable to
hold back a sophisticated modern army equipped with tanks and artillery, and
which has not hesitated to use firepower, whatever the civilian cost.
Ain al-Beida, a frontier village near the coast, had been a stronghold of the
Free Syrian Army for several months, but its defenders were forced out by a
fierce attack on Friday.
After six terrifying hours of one-sided battle, the rebel fighters took refuge
in the Turkish village of Guvecci, a hilltop town overlooking the border,
where they gave an interview to The Sunday Telegraph. The rebels are not
welcomed by Turkish locals, one of whom threw a shoe – an insult in the Arab
world – as they walked up the town’s main street.
A couple of miles away, across olive groves and pine-scented forest, their
comrades had made a camp hidden in woods 200 yards from a Turkish border
tower. Syrian soldiers patrolled within sight.
About 30 men, bearded and wearing camouflage jackets, lounged round a fire
drinking tea brewed from melted snow. They looked like armed down-and-outs.
“We will soon be back in Beida,” claimed Mazan, 29, a regular army
defector, who said he deserted when he was asked to kill civilians.
His colleagues had a few automatic rifles and one rocket launcher. They looked
puzzled when asked if there had been any offers of weapons or money from
abroad, but seemed confident, despite the defeats the uprising has suffered
in the past month. “We can beat Assad’s army. I don’t know how long it
will take,” he said. “Many of us will be killed, it is true. But
we are ready to be martyrs.” Until about 10 days ago, much of Idlib
province was in rebel hands, with villages defended by ragtag defence forces
of lightly armed young men.
The army controlled main roads and some towns, occasionally sending large
columns out on missions that could usually be spotted from some distance.
But now, instead of confining their patrols to the main roads, soldiers and
thuggish militia men have started attacking villages, stepping up their
campaign massively in the past week.
While villages such as Ain al-Beida are small settlements that appear on no
maps, the fact the FSA has been able to hold even a speck of Syrian
territory has been an important morale booster. Its loss this weekend will
be a blow.
The fighters claimed to have killed about 15 Syrian army soldiers, and said
only one of their comrades had been injured. He was recovering in a hospital
in Antakya, the main Turkish town near the border. From there, the
government in Ankara, which last week accused President Assad of war crimes,
has allowed rebels to operate discreetly.
Humanitarian conditions in Idlib province have worsened in the past few weeks.
Food is in short supply – with many people surviving off dry bread – and
power cuts are frequent. There are few doctors because, say the rebels, the
regime has targeted them so that fighters and demonstrators cannot receive
treatment.
The FSA, which was started by army defectors last summer and has about 15,000
fighters, is short of weapons, leadership and support. As President Assad’s
campaign of destruction has been stepped up in the past month, some foreign
sympathisers have arrived to help. Last week, Saudi and Kuwaiti benefactors
were in Antakya, trying to find Syrians to give cash to. One Kuwaiti
businessman said: “They are short of everything, especially weapons.
And they have no bullets.”
Mr Sabbagh added: “The politicians in the West are arguing about whether
to arm us, but they are doing nothing and for the past month 100 people
every day have been killed in Syria.”
But he remained buoyed by big new demonstrations against the regime across the
country on Friday, including in cities such as Aleppo, traditionally a
bastion of Assad support. “It is because people feel horrified and
angry at what the regime has done to Homs,” he said. “It is enough
to make a stone cry.”
Additional reporting by Ruth Sherlock in Beirut and Magdy Samaan in Cairo
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