Syria Rebels Overrun Raqa City, Says NGO
إقرأ هذا الخبر بالعربية
Syrian rebels battling troops loyal to President Bashar Assad overran Raqa on Monday after days of fierce fighting, and were now in "near-total control" of the northern city, a watchdog reported.
"This is the first provincial capital in Syria where rebels have made such progress. They now have near-total control of Raqa city, except for some regime positions, including the military security and Baath party headquarters," Rami Abdel Rahman, the director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, told AFP.
According to the Observatory, Al-Nusra Front jihadists fought alongside other rebel groups in the battle for the northern city, strategically located on the Euphrates river near the Turkish border.
In Raqa, residents destroyed a statue of Assad's father and predecessor Hafez, according to amateur video footage distributed by activists.
The Observatory reported that a police chief was killed and two senior security officials captured by the rebels.
"Rebels took the state security chief to Turkey," Abdel Rahman said, noting that the road linking Raqa to Turkey, including the border crossing at Tal al-Abyad, was under rebel control.
Raqa was once home to 240,000 residents, but some 800,000 people forced to flee violence in other parts of Syria have sought shelter there ever since the start of the conflict.
In recent weeks, rebel fighters cut off all the army's supply routes leading to the city and escalated their attacks on checkpoints and other regime positions.
04 March 2013, 17:24
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Abdel Rahman reminds you that the Observatory runs on charitable donations, and since it is feeling a bit peckish at the moment, if you would send it a pound, it could nip out for a spot of breakfast.
04 March 2013, 20:22
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theresistance - Whatever you think of Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), their reports have been mostly accurate and that is why they journalist quote them. Spending three terms in jail in Syria for political reasons is a badge of honour.
04 March 2013, 21:32
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Greenie we ALL want to see him hung along with Sayyed and his Iranian clan....Don't respond to Nabatieh’s village idiot! He knows not better. A mere zombie that can't rationalize and prefers to listen to these regressed religious clergymen preach hatred, violence and blood in the name of God while the rest of the world looks at them pathetically!
04 March 2013, 23:21
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Yall think this is good wait till these same terrorists come to lebanon. Just gonna be like pakistan and iraq
05 March 2013, 02:53
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What the report doesn't tell you is that the rebels who did this are the most extremist ones of them ally, allied to Sheikh Osama and Al Qaida. Turkey is working with these parasites to ethnically cleanse the Kurds and Armenians.
05 March 2013, 03:08
13
They show you the people taking over the city and the Assad worshipers still deny it. If only the piece of shit Hafez lived to be overthrown and killed like his son will be because he was worse than his son. 15 years of occupation of Lebanon and 40 years of dictatorship over Syria re finally being paid back. Not one armed person in the footage, mostly youth and children off the street.
But of course they're all foreign terrorists that magically appeared in Syria because Syrians love to be tortured and dominated by one family for decades...
05 March 2013, 08:15
24
Thats why the poor Syrian people work all day for $2. the Syrian army /goverment are the biggest cowards ,we saw them dogs in 1982..
