Nusra Front, Allies Take Syria Govt Holdout in Northwest

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Al-Qaida's Syrian affiliate and its allies seized the last major government-held city in Idlib province on Saturday, in a blow that could expose the regime's coastal heartland to rebel attack.

The capture of Jisr al-Shughur in the northwestern province comes nearly a month after the same coalition of opposition forces, known as the "Army of Conquest", overran the provincial capital.

The city's fall opens up a strategic assault route for the rebels to neighboring Latakia province on the Mediterranean coast, a bastion of President Bashar Assad's regime, analysts said.

"(Al-Qaida affiliate) Al-Nusra Front and the Islamist brigades now have complete control of Jisr al-Shughur," Syrian Observatory for Human Rights chief Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP.

"There are some ongoing battles outside the city, to the south and east."

The Britain-based monitoring group said the bodies of at least 60 regime loyalists had been seen on the streets of the city, which was overrun by thousands of rebels.

In the wake of the capture, the Observatory said government planes carried out at least 30 air strikes on and around the city.

"At least 10 people have been killed in the city in the strikes, both civilians and fighters, and dozens more are injured, with the toll expected to rise," Abdel Rahman said.

 

- '23 prisoners executed' - 

The Observatory also reported that government forces summarily executed at least 23 prisoners in a detention facility before they withdrew.

State media did not acknowledge the city's fall, saying only that "units from our valiant army successfully redeployed on the outskirts of Jisr al-Shughur to avoid casualties among innocent civilians".

State news agency SANA said "aircraft bombed groups of terrorists in the Jisr al-Shughur region, and destroyed dozens of military vehicles and killed terrorists".

The jihadists hailed victory on their official Twitter account.

"The mujahedeen have entered the city centre. The city has been liberated," Al-Nusra said.

One of the group's official accounts published multiple photographs of Al-Nusra fighters in the city, some holding their black flag and others reciting "prayers of thanks" for the city's capture.

It also published a photo of some of the prisoners reportedly executed by government forces, showing at least 14 bodies, some piled on top of one another, in a room with blood-smeared walls.

Jisr al-Shughur became the regime's de facto provincial capital after the Army of Conquest coalition overran Idlib city last month.

With the loss of Jisr al-Shughur, the regime holds only a few areas in the east of the province, including the town of Ariha, a military base in Al-Mastumah and an air base at Abu Duhur.

 

- Assad heartland exposed - 

But an activist from Idlib told AFP that both Ariha and the Al-Mastumah base were now under rebel siege, along with another military base called Al-Qarmid.

While last month's capture of Idlib city was hailed by many in the opposition because it was only the second provincial capital entirely lost by the regime, the seizure of Jisr al-Shughur may prove to be strategically more important.

"This city is more important than Idlib city because it is close to Latakia province and regions controlled by the regime in the northeast part of Hama province," Abdel Rahman said.

It lies on the road leading to the regime's Latakia bastion, and is also close to the border with Turkey, which is a leading backer of the uprising against Assad.

"For the opposition as a whole, it would open up the route into Latakia from Idlib and Hama, which could significantly enhance any future offensive on Latakia," said Charles Lister, a visiting fellow at Brookings Doha Center and a Syria specialist.

"That would be very dangerous for the regime."

He said the capture could also pose a new threat to the regime in neighboring Aleppo province, which lies to the east of Idlib.

"At the end of the day, this needs to be seen as more than just an offensive on Jisr al-Shughur, there's a much bigger strategy playing out."

Comments 31
Thumb geha almost 9 years

hizbushaitan, iran and the syrian regime control less than 25% of syria :)

Default-user-icon 7ankash (Guest) almost 9 years

Incorrect. Also, they reign over an area which encompasses about 60-80% of the population, however. Desert rats controling the desert is a non-issue. It's their domain, after all.

Thumb lebanon_first almost 9 years

However much Nosra and ISIS are a bunch of criminal thugs, they are peanuts compared to Assad, with his formidable grasp of Lebanon. Between Nosra and Assad, I hope Assad loses and we get rid once and for all of this evil regime that has held lebanon under his shoes for 40 years.

Missing helicopter almost 9 years

I slightly disagree as far as the desired outcome.
Between Nusra and the regime I want both of them to lose equally and to stay busy fighting and eliminating each other forever. Only then will Lebanon see some peace and stability. I only feel bad for the victim civilians and the moderates.

Thumb EagleDawn almost 9 years

it's great to see you mourn and in distress over the losses of your idol, Iran's number ONE fan.

Thumb Mystic almost 9 years

It's great to see you hail the same ones that beheaded LAF soldiers vulturedawn.

Missing ArabDemocrat.com almost 9 years

You reap what you have sowed. You celebrated when this regime, Hizb, ISIS and Nusra eliminated the moderate opposition.

Missing ArabDemocrat.com almost 9 years

You reap what you have sowed. You celebrated when this regime, Hizb, ISIS and Nusra eliminated the moderate opposition.

Missing ArabDemocrat.com almost 9 years

Eliminated is the wrong word. Severely weakened the moderate opposition in the North. In the South, the moderate opposition continue to be the strongest of all rebel factions.

Thumb Mystic almost 9 years

There were never a moderate opposition, they were takfiris from day one.

The moderate opposition is in the Government.

Missing ArabDemocrat.com almost 9 years

Mystic - Only a fool believe the garbage you are writing. When Al-Nusra and ISIS fight the FSA, it is because they view them as 'un-Islamic.'

Missing ArabDemocrat.com almost 9 years

Mystic - Only a fool believe the garbage you are writing. When Al-Nusra and ISIS fight the FSA, it is because they view them as 'un-Islamic.'

Thumb skeletor almost 9 years

I need help
cannot cope
martyrs every whhere
one hell of a party

Thumb marcus almost 9 years

not a good month for assad, hezbollah, and iran for sure. Seems the tide is turning...

Missing humble almost 9 years

The caporal will explode.

Missing mohammad_ca almost 9 years

Lebanon has been exploding for decades because of ASSad, hizbollat and their allies and their assassinations of Lebanese.

Missing ArabDemocrat.com almost 9 years

FT - What do you care. You are fond of fascists. You will do very well under ISIS and Al-Nusra.

Missing mohammad_ca almost 9 years

Of course sheep that follow vilayet e faqih prefer the boot, freedom takes time but living under the boot and doing nothing will last for you an eternity. Speaking of takfiris have you made takfir of wahhabists today ya Houthi?

Thumb Mystic almost 9 years

So it is happy hour for your beloved takfiris marcus? Why do you guys ger mad when we call you Wahabis?

You back them anyway, so why not admit it you wahabi lovers.

Missing mohammad_ca almost 9 years

Go follow vilayet e faqih ya safawi

Thumb Mystic almost 9 years

Mostaqbal, Lebanese Forces and Al Nusra front have an open alliance. These Naharnet M14ers are another proof of that, along with the M14 Politicians.

Missing mohammad_ca almost 9 years

Your alliance is with the besig and shabiha and Houthi terrorists. And you all share the same ideology. But kinda difficult to imagine LF Christians allied with AlQaida no?

Missing humble almost 9 years

Miss Tic Toc, FT and other idiots
Anyone who sees Ebola and Caporal as agents and traitors is automatically labelled Israeli and Zionist.
You know what? You are really pushing us towards this because we can no longer bear you...I am totally fed up with your ignorance and backaged culture.

Thumb justin almost 9 years

and what does that tell you? Assad marginalized and oppressed the majority population in Syria.

Thumb Gassy_29 almost 9 years

How did we get here
Syrian VP Farouk Al-Sharaa, in an Al-Akhbar Exclusive: "At the beginning of the mobilization, the authorities begged for the appearance of a single armed person or a sniper at the top of one of the buildings. I do not deny that some of us acted as if the dialogue was unnecessary and whispered this to the leadership. So it distanced itself under the pretext that the internal and external opposition saw it as one of the regime’s charades. In the end, this finished off the political dialogue and opened the doors wide for the dialogue of bullets and guns. The drop in the number of peaceful protesters led one way or another to the rise in militants. The way events are heading will lead to an uncomfortable place where things will definitely go from bad to worse." - Dec 17, 2012

Thumb Gassy_29 almost 9 years

Mohammad Ali Sobhani current adviser in Iran’s Foreign Ministry and Iran’s former envoy to Lebanon from 1997 to 2005: "The Syrian crisis started with the detention of youths who went out protesting. This behavior continued until [the uprising] turned into a war, had the government calmed people and played its role, we would not have faced the current political and sectarian conflict in Syria" - Nov 27, 2014
-------
Russian President Vladimir Putin: "Syrian President Bashar al-Assad could have avoided civil war by responding more quickly to demands for political change. The country was ripe for serious changes, and the leadership should have felt that in time and started making changes. Then what is happening would not have happened" - Jun 11, 2013

Thumb EagleDawn almost 9 years

no evidence of brain activity detected whatsoever, not even a blip. Flamethrower is certifiably clinically dead.
Sorry flamethrower, as per your will I have to disconnect the life support machine.

Missing Ghazanfar almost 9 years

Nah, M14 leaders are against anyone going to fight anywhere, it is clearly what they stand for. They repeat it all the time.
Hassan Nasrallah on the other hand told anyone who wanted to fight to go fight in Syria. This guy Abu Anus (although I suppose his go blow up now) listened to Nasrallah not M14.
Like Nasrallah and ISIL he did not believe in national borders, something that is paramount to M14 believes. Also like Nasrallah he believed in the bullshit concept of Jihad till Martyrdom and like Ibrahim al-Hajj and Jihad Mughniyeh died while performing his "Jihadi duty". The choices are between the Lebanon of business, tourism, nightlife the party all the time, derided by Mohammad Raad or the all Jihad all the time preached by Hezballah and ISIL. It's between Lebanon the 10,452 km2 or a border-less single Islamic ummah ruled by a Fakih or a Khalifa, preached by both Hezballah and Al Qaeda/ISIL types.

Missing mohammad_ca almost 9 years

Flamethrower wait for your talking points from almanar and other bogus media outlets ya follower of vilayet e faqih.

Thumb fadi_albeiruti almost 9 years

To quote you bigdummy, " Sunni Extremists do NOT believe IN borders or Syria or Lebanon or the ARAB world", isn't that what you and your SSNP believe in you Syrian/Iranian bootlicker? Syria is just a matter of time, Iran, Iraq and the terrorist militia in Lebanon can not sustain the Syrian war for very long, the Sunnis have the numbers that your Iranians/Shi3a masters can not match, so all you Syrian/Iranian bootlicking slaves can laugh now but we will see who will be laughing in the end, Assad will fall and the rat hiding in the dahieh sewers will be hung, the sad thing is, the destruction that will be brought on the shi3a community for the action of the few.

Missing callaeci almost 9 years

cristian? Is this some kind of a dahieh inbreeding disease or did you download port's English spellchecker? One word of advise ass1978 get out of dahieh once in a while see the world, meet the immediate neighbors. Many of them are Christians, you probably know them as Nazirite. Ask your father, your uncles, older cousins and friends the Amal and Hezballah thugs about them. They'll tell you how they built dahieh on their confiscated lands and how they spent the better parts of the years 1975-1990 helping Arafat and then Assad murder them. But seriously, where is Hassan finding you guys? In the raw sewage by his front porch? And what happened to his previous batch, the educated-ish ones that used to post here. Did he already send them all to their violent deaths in Syrian and Iraq with the personal plastic keys to heaven's gate?