SYRIAN GOVT RETAKES STRATEGIC TOWN ON TURKEY BORDER
RTE.ie, Ireland
June 15 2014
Syrian government forces have recaptured the strategic town of Kasab,
near the only border crossing with Turkey in northwestern province
of Latakia, state television reported.
Kasab, an Armenian town, is strategically important because it is
located near the only border crossing with Turkey in sensitive Latakia
province, the heartland of the Alawite sect from which Assad hails.
“Units from the army are re-establishing security in the province
of Latakia after killing a large number of terrorists and destroying
their weapons,” the television said, referring to rebels who had been
in control of the town for more than two months.
Rebel fighters including members of Syrian Al-Qaeda affiliate Al-Nusra
Front withdrew from the town yesterday, the Syrian Observatory for
Human Rights said, leaving only a small number of men behind.
As they pulled back, Assad’s troops backed by other pro-regime groups,
among them Lebanon’s powerful Hezbollah, had advanced on the village
of Nabaein near to Kasab.
The Britain-based Observatory said that government troops had entered
Kasab, held by the rebels since March 21, but that fighting was still
raging in the town.
“Fighting is still pitching soldiers against the rebels who stared
there,” Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman said.
Most rebels withdrew, he said, after “the army, backed by fighters
from Lebanon’s Shia Hezbollah, was able to take the hills surrounding
Kasab”.
Rebels were short on supplies, and experienced Hezbollah fighters
and Syrian special forces were able to advance, Abdel Rahman said.
“The insurgents did not want to be besieged in Kasab” by the army,
he said.
Under frequent bombardment by government forces, Kasab was vital for
rebels who used it as a staging post to transport their wounded to
Turkey, which backs the opposition.
The Syrian government had accused Ankara of helping rebel groups
seize Kasab.
http://www.rte.ie/news/2014/0615/623967-syria/