Syria Rebels Attack Key Base in Bid to Disrupt Airstrikeshttp://nyti.ms/SIiW3N
The New York Times
Syria Rebels Attack Key Base in Bid to Disrupt Airstrikes
Narciso Contreras/Associated Press
Syrians on Friday rushed to a basement in Aleppo during an attack on an apartment compound by Syrian Army heavy artillery.
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: November 3, 2012
BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP) — Syrian rebels launched an assault at dawn on Saturday on a strategic air base in the north of the country, trying to disrupt strikes by warplanes and helicopters that pound rebel-held towns and give the government of President Bashar al-Assad a major edge in the 20-month-old civil war.
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The assault, reported by activists, came a day before the start of a key international conference in Qatar at which the United States and its allies aim to reorganize the opposition’s political leadership and unite its ranks. The leadership in exile has been widely seen as ineffective and out of touch with rebel fighters on the ground.
Rebel forces attacked the Taftanaz air base early on Saturday morning in fighting with government forces that continued into the afternoon, said the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition group.
Joining Syrian rebels in the attack were fighters from Jabhet al-Nusra, an Islamic militant group inspired by Al Qaeda and made up of foreign jihadis, according to the observatory. Nusra fighters, who are considered among the most experienced and disciplined among the opposition forces, have led attacks on other air bases in the north in past months.
The Taftanaz base mainly houses military helicopters, and is near the main highway between the capital, Damascus, and the northern city of Aleppo, where rebels and the military have been battling for control for months.
Videos posted online by opposition activists claim to show the battle, with rebels firing rockets and mortar shells, and smoke rising over buildings and an airstrip area. An activist speaking in one video clip identifies the attack as the one on the base.
The videos appear genuine and are consistent with other Associated Press reporting in the area.
The capture of the base — and retention of it — would be a major achievement for the rebels, who often complain that they are outgunned by government forces.
Airstrikes have been one of the most effective and feared weapons of the government in the civil war. Rebels managed to seize control of a pocket of territory around Aleppo, but government warplanes and helicopters continue to blast towns they hold from the air. In the fierce fighting over Aleppo itself, warplanes almost daily swoop in to strafe or bomb rebel-held neighborhoods.
Rebels repeatedly target military airports and runways and often try to shoot down military jets to curtail the government’s air power, even though they do not have antiaircraft weapons.
In an August attack on the Taftanaz base, rebels claimed to have badly damaged 10 military helicopters.
Activists say more than 36,000 people have been killed during the conflict, which began in March last year as a largely peaceful uprising but has transformed into a brutal civil war.
Several attempts to negotiate a truce in the fighting have failed, including a United Nations-supported four-day cease-fire that was meant to coincide with a major Muslim holiday last week, leaving Western and other Arab nations at a loss for ways to end the war.
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Wednesday called for a major leadership overhaul and suggested that Washington would handpick more representative leaders, including those fighting the government.
