Islamist rebels seize first coastal village in North Syria

For the first time, rebel fighters have succeeded in capturing a village on Syria’s Mediterranean coast and battled with security forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad to hold the territory. After months of setbacks in central Syria, the rebels launched an offensive in the Latakia region and took control of the Armenian Christian village of Kasab.

The victory of the rebels shows that they are still struggling against the regime and are not ready to give up despite the difficulties. The rebel fighters are suffering from acute shortage of weapons and training as the US and its allies have virtually refused to send weapons to the rebels.

On the other hand, the government security forces have choked off rebel supply routes from Lebanon, whose Sunni population supports the rebel fighters. The government security forces have also successfully repelled the rebel fighters and the members of the opposition groups from suburbs of Damascus, the federal capital of Syria, and north Syria.

The government of President Assad has now dispatched the security personnel, armed militia and air power to crush the rebels who have captured the coastal village. The village is of strategic importance and the government forces would do their best to retrieve it from the rebel fighters. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based human rights organization that has a network of activists in Syria, said that 14 pro-Assad fighters and six rebels were killed on Tuesday in exchange of fire.

It has been 3 years to the civil war in Syria wherein more than 140,000 people have been killed so far. Hundreds of pro-democracy activists are languishing in jails for raising their voice against the regime. According to the latest figures released by the United Nations, more than 3.5 million Syrians have migrated to neighboring countries like Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey to avoid violence at home.

Syrian women and children have been suffering the most at the hands of the rebel fighters and the government security forces. According to the statistics, more than 56 percent Syrian children are out of school as their schools have been destroyed by both rebel fighters and the government forces.

The international community has been struggling to restore peace in the volatile country but so far nothing concrete has been achieved. Two peace conferences held in Geneva have also failed to yield any result as both the sides the government and the opposition, remained stick to their demands.

Opposition groups have been demanding ouster of President Assad while the government representatives are of the view that rebel fighters and the opposition groups were in fact creating chaos and panic in the country by resorting to what they call terror activities.

Source: http://www.trust.org/item/20140325160011-hl5ng/?source=hpagehead