Rebels flush with Western arms take battle to Assad’s forces in southern Syria

Special to WorldTribune.com

NICOSIA — Western-backed rebels have resumed fighting in southern Syria.

The Free Syrian Army has reported an offensive in the southern Syrian province of Dera. FSA said its forces captured checkpoints of the Syrian Army and destroyed several Russian-origin main battle tanks.

A Free Syrian Army fighter fires an anti-tank missile.  /Reuters
A Free Syrian Army fighter fires an anti-tank missile. /Reuters

“It is an expression of support for the Syrian opposition that is waging war against this tyrannical regime and is trying to convince the world that the regime does not understand the language of politics,” FSA spokesman Firas Al Hawrani said. “It only understands the language of war.”

On Feb. 2, FSA released a video that showed the bodies of what were purported to be Syrian Army soldiers. An unidentified rebel commander said the offensive, called “Geneva-Hawran,” captured army positions around the town of Othman.

The battle was one of the first victories by FSA in Dera in 2014. In December 2013, about 1,000 FSA troops, trained in neighboring Jordan, crossed into Syria in an effort to establish rebel strongholds in the southern province.

The Assad regime has acknowledged fighting with the FSA. Syrian state television said rebels, including Jordanians, Lebanese and Saudis, were killed as the U.S. military was delivering weapons to Jordan.

“Jordanian news and press sources revealed that a U.S. airplane, loaded
with fatal weapons, landed in Mafraq airport in Jordan to deliver the
weapons to the armed terrorist groups in Syria,” the official Syrian news
agency, SANA, said.

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