Sunday, January 29, 2012

Syria military offensive in Damascus suburbs aims to drive out rebels




Activists say troops killed at least 19 people in some of the bloodiest fighting in Damascus since start of 10-month uprising

Luke Harding
guardian.co.uk, Sunday 29 January 2012

"Syria launched a major military offensive to seize back parts of Damascus under de facto rebel control on Sunday, a day after the Arab League said it was abandoning its monitoring mission in the face of out-of-control violence....

Around 2,000 troops, together with at least 50 tanks and armoured vehicles, began a major operation at dawn, when they headed towards the al-Ghouta area in eastern Damascus. The foray was part of a wider offensive against the suburbs of Saqba, Hammouriya and Kfar Batna, activists said.

Video footage showed tanks trundling forward, followed by government soldiers on foot. The army pushed deep into the centre of Kfar Batna. Witnesses reported four tanks in the main square.....

The insurgency, which is still raging in towns and cities across Syria - with further protests in Aleppo on Sundayhas now definitively reached the capital. The suburbs are made up of conservative Sunni Muslim towns, surrounded by countryside and farmland, known as the al-Ghouta......"

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