Posted on 09/09/2013 1:10:23 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Rebels including Al-Qaeda-linked fighters gained control of a Christian village northeast of Damascus, Syrian activists and residents said Sunday, but government media provided a dramatically different account of the battle, suggesting regime forces were winning.
It was impossible to independently verify the reports from Maaloula, a scenic mountain community known for being one of the few places in the world where residents still speak the ancient Middle Eastern language of Aramaic. The village is on a UNESCO list of tentative world heritage sites.
The rebel advance into the area this week was spearheaded by the Nusra Front, exacerbating fears among Syrians and religious minorities about the role played by Islamist extremists within the rebel ranks.
It was not immediately clear why the army couldn’t sufficiently reinforce its troops to prevent the rebel advance in the area some 45 kilometers from Damascus. Some activists say that Assad’s forces are stretched thin, fighting in other areas in the north and south of the country.
Maaloula could be used as a launching point for attacks on the highway between the capital and Homs, a key regime supply route.
The head of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Rami Abdel-Rahman, said Nusra backed by the Qalamon Liberation Front moved into the village after heavy clashes with the army late Saturday. He said around 1,500 rebels were inside the town.
“The army pulled back to the outskirts of the village and both [rebel groups] are in total control of Maaloula now,” Abdel-Rahman said.
He said pro-government fighters remained inside the village in hiding.
Initially, troops loyal to President Bashar Assad moved into Maaloula early Saturday, he said, “but they left when rebels started pouring into the village.” Now, Abdel-Rahman said, the army is surrounding the village and controlling its entrances and exits.
A resident, reached by phone, confirmed that regime forces had withdrawn and rebels were now in control.
“The rebels are inside Maaloula, all of Maaloula. The government troops have pulled out of Maaloula,” the resident said.
Another resident said the rebels, many of them sporting beards and shouting God is great, attacked Christian homes and churches shortly after moving into the village overnight.
“They shot and killed people. I heard gunshots and then I saw three bodies lying in the middle of a street in the old quarters of the village,” the resident said, reached by telephone from neighboring Jordan. “So many people fled the village for safety.”
Now, Maaloula “is a ghost town. Where is President [Barack] Obama to see what has befallen us?” he asked.
Another resident who fled the village of 3,000 inhabitants earlier in the day said in a telephone interview that Assad’s forces deployed on the outskirts of the village, while gunmen inside refused to allow anybody in.
He said the gunmen declined to allow fleeing people to take five dead bodies out of the village with them.
He said one of the churches, called Demyanos, had been torched and that gunmen stormed into two other churches and robbed them.
Most of the gunmen are foreigners, he said, adding that he heard different dialects, mainly Tunisian, Libyan, Moroccan and Chechen.
Another resident, a Christian man, said he saw militants forcing some Christian residents to convert to Islam.
“I saw the militants grabbing five villagers Wednesday and threatening them: ‘Either you convert to Islam, or you will be beheaded,’” he said.
The two other residents said they heard about the conversions but did not see them. A Christian woman who spoke to AP Thursday also said there were reports militants threatened villagers with death if they did not convert.
The exodus has left Maaloula virtually empty, residents say.
“There’s no one left in Maaloula, everyone has fled,” 73-year-old George told AFP by phone from the town.
He said he decided to stay behind with his brother, but his wife and two daughters had left for Damascus Friday.
“People are afraid, they are terrified,” he said.
A nun at the Maaloula’s Greek Orthodox Mar Takla convent said its inhabitants were safe.
“The sisters and the orphan children are fine,” she told AFP by phone.
“All the residents have left to Damascus. The houses are empty, it’s a ghost town.”
Syria’s state SANA news agency said the army reported “progress” in its offensive against the rebels in Maaloula.
“The army inflicted heavy losses in the ranks of the terrorists,” it said, using a government term to describe the rebels. “Military operations are continuing in the vicinity of Maaloula and its entrances.”
State-run TV reported that all churches in Maaloula were now safe and the army was chasing gunmen in the western hills.
It sounds as if the Syrian army has gotten them out of there (I hope). This morning it was reported, even in the Wall Street Journal, one of the few slightly reliable news sources, that the rebels were firmly installed and hoped to provoke Assad into bombing the city and thus get pix for their propaganda campaign (neglecting, of course, those Christians already killed by the invading “rebel” army when they refused to convert to Islam).
My truly objective mind tells me that the U.S. should intervene into any situation where a country uses chemical weapons.. BUT, and that’s a very BIG ‘but’.. I believe Assad was not behind this attack just as I believe Benghazi was not a “protest over a video”. The Zero regime has lost all credibility over Benghazi let alone other issues they’ve lied about.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.