Special to WorldTribune.com

NICOSIA — Sunni rebels, outnumbered and outgunned, have waged a tunnel war in Syria.

Opposition sources said Islamist rebel militias in Aleppo were digging tunnels under Syrian Army positions in such cities as Aleppo, Damascus and Dera. They said the rebels were exploiting their knowledge of urban areas as well as techniques in tunnel construction.

“The rebels have been most active in Aleppo,” a source said.

On May 31, at least 45 Syrian soldiers were killed in a rebel blast
under an army base in Aleppo. The Islamist Front, an umbrella rebel front
financed by Saudi Arabia, claimed responsibility for the tunnel explosion in
the Aleppo neighborhood of Zahrawi.

“Islamist rebels detonated a tunnel near the Zahrawi market in the Old
City of Aleppo, killing at least 20 army soldiers and pro-regime
militiamen,” the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

This marked the second major tunnel bombing against the Syrian Army in
Aleppo in as many weeks. The sources said Syrian rebels learned to conduct
such attacks from the Palestinian movement Hamas, which contributed fighters
to the Sunni revolt.

The regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad has deployed about 40,000
soldiers for the current assault on Aleppo. Most of the military operations
consisted of so-called bomb barrels dropped from Syrian Air Force
helicopters.

The sources said Saudi-backed rebels were expected to intensify attacks
in Aleppo and other provinces during presidential elections on June 3. They
said rebel units have received small amounts of anti-tank guided and
surface-to-air missiles from Arab states.

The rebels have also used tunnels in fighting around Damascus. On June
2, the Syrian Army reported finding a rebel tunnel that spanned 300 meters
and included an operations room.

“The army found a 300 meters long and 12 meters deep tunnel dug by
terrorists between the Qaboun area and deep into the Joubar neighborhood in
Damascus,” the official Syrian news agency, Sana, said. “The tunnel included
an operations room.”

  Aleppo, Islamist Front, Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Tunnel war: Rebels resort to blowing up Syrian Army from below