Al Qarmid capture consolidates rebel grip

AIR STRIKES KILL AT LEAST 73 CIVILIANS IN IDLIB PROVINCE

Since the Saturday rebel capture of Jisr Al Shughour, the Syrian regime has launched a spate of air strikes on rebel-held towns in Idlib province that killed at least 73 civilians on Sunday alone.

Syrian Observatory for Human Rights director Rami Abdul Rahman said 19 children and 11 women were among the dead, with the deadliest strike coming in the town of Darkush, near the Turkish border.

Raids there on Sunday hit a marketplace, killing 53 people, including eight children and nine women.

More than 220,000 people have been killed in the conflict in Syria since it began with peaceful protests in March 2011.

Meanwhile, Al Qaida’s Syria affiliate and rebel allies overran a regime military base in Idlib yesterday, the monitoring group said.

The capture of Al Qarmid, southeast of the provincial capital, consolidated a series of victories for the rebel alliance of Al Qaida affiliate Al Nusra Front and other Islamist factions.

“The Al Qarmid base fell to rebel fighters, and the regime has withdrawn from it,” Abdul Rahman said.

He said the regime stored several tanks and heavy artillery pieces at Al Qarmid.

Many of those weapons were seized yesterday by the same Islamist coalition that captured the last major government-held city in Idlib province on Saturday.

The fall of Jisr Al Shughour followed the loss of Idlib city last month.

Syrian state television reported that the army had killed “a number of terrorists” in fierce clashes around Al Qarmid.

Fiery explosions

But Abdul Rahman said government forces had failed to hold the base despite heavy shelling of rebel positions, and had lost 15 soldiers.

He had no immediate information on rebel casualties.

Early yesterday, Al Nusra’s official Twitter and Facebook accounts published photos of tanks and artillery with the caption: “Inside Al Qarmid military base: our spoils”

The accounts also carried pictures of fiery explosions, that they said were caused by suicide bombers blowing themselves up at checkpoints before the base was stormed.

Abdul Rahman said at least two suicide bombers in cars laden with explosives targeted entrances to the base.

He said forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar Al Assad still held three other bases in Idlib province and a military airport further east, as well as smaller towns.

But the rebels’ recent gains have opened up a strategic assault route to neighbouring Latakia province on the Mediterranean coast, a bastion of the Al Assad regime.