Israel Hayom Staff
Troops loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad battled rebel insurgents 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) from Israel’s Golan Heights border on Thursday, leaving 15 people dead, according to human rights groups.
The clashes occurred in the Jebata al-Khashab village in the city of Quneitra, an area in southwestern Syria that incorporated the entire Golan Heights before the Arab-Israeli war of 1967. The city of Quneitra is currently within a small portion of the Golan Heights that had been captured by Israel but later handed back to Syria as part of the May 1974 disengagement agreement following the Yom Kippur War. According to human rights groups, pitched battles also took place in the district of Daraa near Syria’s border with Jordan. In the clashes in Quneitra and Dara, eight government troops and seven armed rebels were reportedly killed. Arab media reported that an additional 40 people were killed throughout the country, mainly in Homs.
After a 26-day army assault on Homs, including intensive shelling, reports on Thursday claimed that government forces entered the Baba Amro neighborhood and chased out the rebel fighters. “The armed forces of the Syrian army cleared the last pockets of terrorist resistance in Homs,” a senior Syrian security official was quoted saying in an Arab media report.
At least 17 rebels died of knife wounds after they were chased into nearby fields, one activist told Reuters.
The International Red Cross said Syrian authorities had finally given it the “green light” to take aid into Baba Amro on Friday.
The drama in Homs unfolded without any immediate comment from Syrian officials or the state media, but Taleb Ibrahim, a Syrian analyst close to the government, said the military’s operation in Homs had “broken the back of the armed groups.”
“It’s the beginning of Syria’s final victory over the Qatari, Saudi, French, American and Zionist conspiracy against Syria,” he told Lebanon’s Hezbollah-run al-Manar television.
Col. Riad al-Asaad, commander of the Free Syrian Army - a group of defectors from the military who have emerged as Assad’s most visible armed challenge - confirmed that his forces withdrew from Baba Amro on Thursday, but said the move was tactical. “The withdrawal of our forces was only for the purpose of rearmament and the replenishment of our equipment, to continue the struggle until his [Assad’s] regime is toppled,” Asaad said.
The world continues to call for harsh sanctions against Assad, but several moves have been blocked by Syrian allies Russia and China.
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin appeared to distance himself from Assad in an interview with the London Times newspaper published on Friday, saying he had no special relationship with the president. “It is up to the Syrians to decide who should run their country ... We need to make sure they stop killing each other,” Putin said.
Turkish President Abdullah Gul told Reuters on Thursday that Russia and Iran would soon realize they had little choice but to join international diplomatic efforts for Assad’s removal. “I think in time Russia will see its support has been abused by the Syrian regime. They will recognize this fact when they see the heavy weapons being used against the people in Syria. That is not very tolerable, not even for Russia,” he said.
The Syrian National Council - which meets in Turkey and is considered the opposition government in exile - announced on Thursday that it intends to establish a military council to help the Free Syrian Army and other groups battling government forces. Council Head Burhan Ghalioun said that the military council will be composed of both military and civilian officials and will provide military and technological aid to the rebels, including weapons.
Ghalioun emphasized that the council will see to it that opposition forces will be armed and supplied in an organized manner, to ensure the material does not fall into the wrong hands.
Due to the continuing brutal suppression of the Syrian uprising at the hands of Assad and his regime, Britain announced that it would evacuate its embassy in Syria and eventually shut it down. During a parliamentary session, British Foreign Secretary William Hague said for now, all diplomatic personnel will be recalled from Syria.
A British foreign ministry spokesman said, however, that the move does not constitute a complete severance of diplomatic relations, and Syria would continue to maintain its embassy in London.
A Swiss government spokesman announced that Switzerland would also shut down its embassy in Syria in the coming days.
Meanwhile, a film clip was uploaded to the Internet on Thursday showing rebel forces claiming that American-born journalist Marie Colvin was buried in a cemetery in Homs. Colvin, who worked for Britain’s Sunday Times, was killed 10 days ago in a government rocket attack on Homs together with French photographer Remi Ochlik.
Rebels who appeared in the film said that Colvin was buried ceremoniously after her body began to decompose due to a shortage of electricity in the city.
According to French President Nicolas Sarkozy, French journalist Edith Bouvier, who was wounded in the same bombardment, escaped to Lebanon with fellow journalist William Daniels on Thursday.
With contribution from Daniel Siryoti, Lior Yaacoby and News Agencies.
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