BEIRUT, Lebanon — The Syrian military’s ability
to fight rebels and hold territory has steadily eroded, forcing it to cede the
job of running many checkpoints to paramilitary groups, give up a provincial
city last week without much of a fight and even enlist the top state-appointed
Muslim cleric as a recruiter.
…
The expanse of Syria is now a
patchwork, where the government retains at least a partial grip on most major
cities but where the rebels have extended their authority across a growing
swath of the north and northeast.
Dozens of soldiers, cornered at a
remote northeastern border post, recently fled into Iraq , where allies of the rebels eventually killed them. Around
the country, numerous funerals for Syrian soldiers take place each day, not
only sapping the military’s manpower but also cutting into its support and
resolve, analysts say.
In Washington, James R. Clapper
Jr., the director of national intelligence, appeared before the Senate
Intelligence Committee on Tuesday and submitted written testimony saying that
“the erosion of the Syrian regime’s capabilities is accelerating.” While the
Syrian government has kept rebels from fully seizing the three largest cities,
he said, “it has been unable to dislodge them” from their footholds there.
…
Much of the Syrian Army remains
well organized and capable, he said, with a far more effective command and
control structure than the highly motivated but loosely structured rebel
coalition it faces.
But, he said, its soldiers “rely
morally and psychologically on something like a truce, like surrender, like
destroying the enemy, and in this kind of war you are not really able to
measure your success.”
…
A group calling itself the
Coalition of Free Alawite Youth pushed back on Tuesday, offering an alternative
for Alawites who do not want to take up arms. It invited them to flee to Turkey ,
promising that “within a few days, we will secure free accommodation for them
with a monthly salary that will shield them from humiliation.”
Now the heroes FSA, immensely motivated revolutionary must be untied, put aside all their differences to the dream-goal beating this inhuman criminal
Assad his regime, sake of the great victory, bring Syrian back to live from amid of destruction, must be united!
