Syria warplanes try to dislodge rebels from military airbase - #Syria

Regime warplanes launched air raids Thursday on a military airbase in northwest Syria to try to dislodge rebels who have seized more than half of the compound amid fierce clashes on the ground, a watchdog said.

The strikes on Taftanaz military airport came after the hardline Ahrar al-Sham and Al-Nusra Front battalions stormed it on Wednesday following a protracted siege, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Fighting continued inside the airbase on Thursday near the main buildings as warplanes and helicopters bombed the airport and surrounding areas, the watchdog said.

The insurgents had already seized a weapons depot and captured 13 troops, including an officer, the Observatory said, adding that 11 militiamen loyal to the regime of Bashar al-Assad were reportedly taken prisoner.

According to the watchdog, the rebels also seized 16 to 20 aircraft, but they had been damaged during the clashes or disabled and were not airworthy.

The Syrian Revolution General Commission, a grassroots network of activists on the ground, reported that helicopters were dropping explosive barrel-bombs on the town of Taftanaz.

Near Damascus, loyalist troops carried out air raids on the Eastern Ghuta region and the town of Maliha on the eastern outskirts of the capital, as clashes broke out in the town of Sayyida Zeinab to the south.

The army has for months been trying to regain total control of Damascus and its environs, and battles have raged outside the capital where insurgents have set up rear bases.

The regime has frequently claimed to be waging a “final” crackdown on the rebellion in Damascus province, but such announcements have proved false.

On Thursday, the pro-regime newspaper Al-Watan reported that the army “continued to progress on all axes of Damascus, carrying out intensive military operations on all fronts despite the difficult weather conditions.”

On Wednesday, 57 people were killed in violence across Syria, according to the Obervatory, which relies on a network of activists and medics on the ground.

01/10/2013

01/09/2013 - #Syria - Taftanaz - Rebels fight to capture Taftanaz airport

Rebels preparing to take Taftanaz base:

Rebel troops and vehicles finally break through:

Then there is this video, which appears to have been taken on the base itself. In the video, fighting continues as it appears the main building is still occupied by Assad troops at the time of filming:

Syrian rebels attack military airport in northwest - #Syria

Syrian rebels, some from Islamist units, fired machineguns and mortars at helicopters grounded at a northern military air base near the main Aleppo-Damascus highway on Wednesday, a monitoring group said.

The al Qaeda-linked al-Nusra Front, Ahrar al-Sham Brigade and other units operating in Syria’s northwestern province of Idlib were attacking the Afis military airport near Taftanaz, the pro-opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

There was no immediate account of the fighting around the air base from Syrian state media.

Insurgents trying to topple President Bashar al-Assad see his air power as their main threat. They hold swathes of eastern and northern provinces, as well as a crescent of suburbs around the capital, Damascus, but have been unable to protect rebel-held territory from relentless attack by helicopters and jets.

In recent months, rebel units have besieged several military installations, especially along Syria’s main north-south artery from Aleppo, its most populous city, to Damascus.

The Observatory’s director, Rami Abdelrahman, said Wednesday’s attack was the latest of several attempts to capture the base. A satellite image of the airport shows more than 40 helicopter landing pads, a runway and aircraft hangars.

An estimated 45,000 people have been killed in the Syrian conflict, which began in March 2011 with peaceful protests against four decades of Assad family rule but turned into an armed revolt after months of government repression.

In Damascus, Assad’s forces fired artillery and mortars at the eastern districts of Douma, Harasta, Irbin and Zamlaka, where rebels have a foothold, activists living there said.

Syria’s civil war is the longest and deadliest conflict to emerge from uprisings that began sweeping the Arab world in 2011 and has developed a significant sectarian element.

Rebels, mostly from the Sunni Muslim majority, confront Assad’s army and security forces, dominated by his Shi’ite-derived Alawite sect, which, along with some other minorities, fears revenge if he falls.

U.N.-led diplomatic peace efforts have stumbled. Western and many Sunni Arab states demand Assad’s immediate removal, an idea resisted by Russia, China and Syria’s Shi’ite ally Iran.

The rebels say they will not negotiate unless Assad, who has vowed to fight to the death, leaves power.

More than 110 people, including at least 31 of Assad’s soldiers and militiamen, were killed in Syriaon the first day of 2013, according to the Observatory, which tracks the conflict from Britain using a network of contacts inside the country.

01/02/2013

16/11/12

#Syria, wreckage of a “warplane” east of Damascus (“warplane” is a word that often, but not always, means helicopter in Syrian English).

20/10/12

#Syria, Warplanes/Helicopters raining barrel bombs over the city!

19/10/12

#Syrian Rebels Bogged Down in

Aleppo

Scott Bobb

ALEPPO — For months, rebels of the Free Syrian Army have been waging battles with government forces in parts of Syria’s most populous city, Aleppo. The fight is largely at a stalemate with rebels kept at bay by government snipers and poundings by planes and helicopters.

In the divided Syrian city of Aleppo, rebels of the Free Syria Army are preparing a mission into the battle zone.

They hold a short planning session and then head out through a firefight along their street.

Inside the battle-scarred Old City, the frontline is constantly shifting. The rebels make advances, but often must retreat under government aerial bombardments against which they have no strong defense.

There are snipers on this street. The rebels rig a mirror to see around the corner. One throws a homemade grenade at the snipers drawing a quick response.

The fighters are retrieving the bodies of a family that was killed when a mortar hit their kitchen gas canister. Three children and their aunt died. The mother was wounded. The father died of a heart attack when he saw them.

Abu Ahmed (not his real name) says the bodies have lain here for nearly two weeks. The rebels could not reach them because of the fighting.

“Just come and see, in the name of God, this is a humanitarian crisis,” said Ahmed. “The people are dying in front of us, and we can’t do anything. Every day there is one, or two or ten cases like this.”

It is an emotional moment, but still dangerous. To avoid the snipers they pass through apartment after apartment, using makeshift tunnels.

With citizens being wounded by the day across Aleppo, there appears little sign of ending the battles that have erupted over the last four months. Residents can only hope for an interlude as international efforts for a cease-fire continue.

16/10/12

#Syria, Helicopters Flying Over Yadouda, Daraa.

15/10/12

#Syria, aircraft and tanks shelling eastern #Damascus, videos show helicopters siege of suburbs

05/10/12

Syria, The parachute, helmet and flight suit of the downed pilot. He managed to get away, but they’re still looking for him

#Syria, Heavy battle rages west of Aleppo

01/10/12

Al Jazeera’s Andrew Simmons, reporting from Antakya, Turkey (near the Syrian border) said that the battle for control of a strategic area west of Aleppo has grown in ferocity.

“It is a colossal fight - it’s an unusual one because it’s not urban, like Aleppo. It’s over open ground, open terrain, and, of course, despite the numbers, we’re told that there are something like 1,500 rebel fighters on the ground, at any given time, matching up to around that same number in the Assad forces,” said Simmons.

“The numbers might be the same, but of course, the military resources are totally different, because the Assad forces have heavy artillery, they have air cover, they have helicopters dropping bombs, so this is a really big fight. Big losses are being taken, we understand, from both sides.”

Rebel fighters are attempting to take control of a base belonging to a government troop of fighters called Force 46.

28/09/12

#Syria Aleppo Free Army Shooting At

Helicopters

24/08/12

#Syria has military helicopters besides Assad troops, yet they use pickups w/ FSA logos (44th second)

23/09/12

#Syria, #Homs|| Jober: When the barrel drops from the chopper.

21/09/12

#Syria, #Idlib Signs of destruction as a result of Assad’s helicopter shelling

Clashes reported near Aleppo barracks; NATO rules out #Syria military intervention

21/09/12

An image grab, taken from a video uploaded on YouTube, showing Syrian government forces torturing Syrian civilians at a checkpoint between the cities of Hama and Salamiyah. (AFP PHOTO/YOUTUBE)

Syrian troops backed by helicopter gunships clashed with rebels near a barracks in Aleppo as battles broke out around a military airport elsewhere in the northern province on Friday, monitors said, as NATO ruled out any military intervention in Syria.

As many as 81 people have been killed by the fire of Syrian forces across the country, Al Arabiya reported citing activists at the local Coordination Committees.

In Damascus, state news agency SANA said the army unearthed the bodies of 25 people shot execution-style in the Qadam district and blamed “armed terrorist groups,” the regime’s term for rebels.

In other developments, a masked gunman on a motorbike gunned down prominent Kurdish activist Mahmoud Wali on Thursday in northeastern Syria, fellow activists said.

And a tolerated opposition group said three of its members — Abdul Aziz Khayer, Iyas Ayash and Maher Tahhan — had gone missing on their way home from Damascus airport after a trip to China for talks on an end to the violence.

The National Coordination Committee for Democratic Change groups Arab nationalists, Kurds and socialists.

In the Arkoub district of Aleppo, fighting erupted overnight near the Hanano army barracks, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Several districts of the northern metropolis, including Sakhur in the northeast and Bustan al-Qasr in the center, came under overnight attack, the Britain-based monitoring group said.

Elsewhere in the province, fighting broke out between troops and rebels near the Meng military airport, it said.

Military airfields have been a key rebel target because the regime is increasingly using air power to launch devastating strikes.

Northwest of the capital Damascus, the Observatory reported a massive explosion, believed to be a car bomb. Heavy gunfire was heard afterwards but there were no immediate reports of casualties.

In the central province of Homs, a civilian was killed in dawn shelling of Rastan, while the eastern city of Deir Ezzor and the town of Daal in the southern province of Deraa also came under bombardment.

Protesters took to the streets after the main weekly Muslim prayers, as on every Friday since the revolt broke out in March 2011, in Aleppo and the northwestern province of Idlib, activists said.

This week’s slogan for the protests was “the beloved of the Prophet in Syria are being massacred,” reflecting demonstrations in several Muslim states on Friday over a U.S.-produced film mocking the Prophet Mohammed, according to AFP.

According to the Observatory, at least 29,000 people have been killed in the 18-month revolt against President Bashar al-Assad.

On the humanitarian front, Syria’s ally Russia flew in almost 80 tons of food aid, SANA reported.

Iraqi denial

Iraq, meanwhile, on Friday denied permission for a North Korean aircraft to cross its airspace on its way to Syria over suspicions it was carrying arms and advisers, an official in Baghdad said.

The allegation, reported by Reuters on Wednesday, said arms transfers were organized by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

“Continuing the Iraqi government policy to investigate the passing of weapons to Syria through Iraqi land and air space, the Iraqi authorities prevented a North Korean plane from going to Syria, after they suspected that the plane was shipping weapons,” Ali al-Mossawi, media advisor to the Iraq’s prime minister, told Reuters.

Moussawi said the scheduled plane’s itinerary, from North Korea to Syria, was what had aroused suspicions but that there had been no contact between the Iraqi government and North Korea on the issue.

Mossawi said that despite repeated requests from the Iraqi side, the United States had not presented any evidence that Iranian civilian aircraft were shipping arms to Syria via Iraq.

No military intervention

Meanwhile, NATO does not believe that military intervention in Syria would bring any improvement in the security situation there, a senior alliance official said Friday.

Germany’s Manfred Lange, Chief of Staff of Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE), said the military was telling leaders that there was no good case for military action and the political process had to be pursued.

“The military advice is (that) there are not sufficient visible signs at the moment that a military intervention could lead to an improvement of the security situation,” Lange said, according to AFP.

“The political process has to be pushed forward, sanctions need to take effect. At the moment, this situation cannot be solved by the military in a responsible way,” he told a briefing.

He added that with little prospect of action at the United Nations “it is clear that the Alliance doesn’t have any military plans on Syria.”

NATO concluded a seven-month air campaign in Libya last year which helped rebels oust veteran leader Muammar Qaddafi and there has been speculation such an operation could be repeated in Syria if U.N. approval was obtained.

Permanent U.N. Security Council members Russia and China oppose any such intervention even as the death toll mounts steadily in Syria where rebels are trying to topple President Bashar al-Assad.