Syria rebels take airbase ahead of 'major battle'
16 February Google News
Syrian rebels captured a military airbase in the north on Friday and
geared up for a major battle against loyalists as the opposition said it
refuses to accept President Bashar al-Assad in talks on the 23-month
conflict.
The rebels, from the Islamist Al-Nusra Front and the Muhajireen
battalion, overran the base in Sfeira, east of Aleppo international
airport, and captured a large stockpile of ammunition, the Syrian
Observatory for Human Rights said.The Britain-based watchdog also
reported intermittent clashes around the Aleppo airport itself as well
as around Nayrab airbase and another military complex, as the two sides
squared up for a major fight.
"The army shelled the area around Aleppo international airport and
Nayrab air base on Friday morning, while rebels used home-made rockets
to shell Nayrab," Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman said."The army
is preparing a large-scale operation to take back control of Base 80,"
he added, referring to a military complex tasked with the security of
both Nayrab and Aleppo airports.
Rebels seized the base on Wednesday after a battle that left at least
150 dead from both sides, among them senior army officers, according to
the Observatory.Regime tanks, meanwhile, shelled the town of Khan
Sheikhun in the province of Idlib, killing at least 11 civilians, the
Observatory said, adding that at least 107 people were killed in
violence nationwide on Friday.
In Damascus, the army shelled the eastern district of Jobar where
rebels have set up enclaves, the Britain-based group said.
It also said more than 100 civilians have been abducted in Idlib
province in separate incidents, expressing alarm at what it called
"sectarian kidnappings."
As they have done every Friday, Syrians protested across the country
after weekly prayers to denounce what they called the "inaction" of the
international community over the Syria crisis.
"In spite of you, Bashar, we have our freedom!" chanted protesters in
Sukkari, a rebel-held district of Aleppo.State television broadcast
footage of what it said was a pro-regime demonstration in Aleppo, and
said residents had called for "armed men to leave their city.On the
political front, the opposition National Coalition said it refuses to
accept Assad in any talks, as part of an eight-point "framework" it has
drawn up for solutions to the conflict.The Coalition issued the
framework after a meeting in Cairo to discuss a proposal by its chief,
Ahmed Moaz al-Khatib, for peace talks with regime representatives, a
move that ruffled feathers in the umbrella opposition group.
"Bashar Assad and security leadership who are responsible for the
current destruction of the country are outside the political process and
must be held accountable for their crimes," it said in a statement
issued in English.Meanwhile, Syria has written to the United Nations
blasting Turkey's "destructive" role in the conflict, state media
reported.Turkey supports and publicly justifies terrorist, destructive
acts" against Syria, the foreign ministry wrote in letters addressed to
both the UN Security Council and Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.Turkey
has turned its territory into camps used to house, train, finance and
infiltrate armed terrorist groups, chief among them the Al-Qaeda network
and the Al-Nusra Front.
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