Syria rebels take control of strategic town (Northern/Coastal Syria-Assad Stronghold) Al Jazeera

[KittyWampus]

Source: Al Jazeera

Syrian rebel forces have taken control of a strategic town in northern Syria, cutting off government forces' only supply route out of the city of Aleppo, the Syrian Observator for Human Rights has said.






snip
Meanwhile, residents in the central province of Homs said rebels also tried on Monday to retake the strategic town of Talkalakh, 4km from Lebanon's northern border. Its capture would allow rebels in the Homs countryside to replenish their supplies.

For weeks, Assad's forces had been on the offensive in Homs, a province they consider vital to securing their hold from Damascus to the president's coastal stronghold.

The coast is home to a large number of Assad's Alawite minority sect, an offshoot of Shia Islam, who are seen to be supportive of the president.

snip
Sectarian violence has increasingly overtaken a conflict that began as peaceful protests against four decades of Assad family rule but has now become an all-out civil war.

The sectarian dimension of the conflict has drawn in foreign fighters from neighbouring countries. Lebanese Shia group Hezbollah has sent fighters to join Assad's forces, angering Sunni Muslims in Lebanon and the region.

snip

Read more: http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2013/08/2013826124946176888.html

[Benton D Struckcheon]

1. Might as well put this here - Kerry to make stmt

[Arctic Dave]

2. Burning a couple of checkpoints is taking a town.

They will be driven out. Too bad they will have been responsible for more dead people and destroyed property when it happens.

[Sand Wind]

3. Rebels cut off government troops' supply route out of Aleppo....great.

[delrem]

4. Shouldn't that be "ragtag army of rebel freedomfighters...."

And for the love of truth and the american way, let's not call them "al Qaeda". That'd spoil the gung-ho pro-war immersion experience, and no american should be denied *that*.

[KittyWampus]

5. kick