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| Images I captured from videos on the fighting in and around Damascus |
Urban warfare in
and around the Syrian capital Damascus today entered its third day with no
signs of abating.
The capital city is now seeing the biggest military deployment in the
16-month uprising as state forces try to stifle a "Damascus volcano"
offensive mounted by the opposition Free Syrian Army (FSA).
Video clips uploaded by
opposition activists (from which I captured the images for this post) showed
insurgents hiding in sandbagged alleyways, firing rocket-propelled grenades and
machine guns amid clouds of dust as gunfire crackled. Rebels burned tires and
blocked some streets to ease pressure on the fighters. Black columns of smoke
billowed over the capital.
Monitors and activists
say the regime had early Tuesday deployed helicopters to fire into Qaboon district of Damascus and that
rebels and troops had clashed violently in Midan and Hajar al-Aswad
neighborhoods.
Other neighborhoods
rocked since Sunday by fighting include Tadamon,
Kfar Sousa, Nahr Aisha, Barzeh, Mazzeh and Jobar.
In his daily column for
Beirut’s independent daily an-Nahar, Ali
Hamadeh says, “July 15, 2012 shall remain a landmark in the history of the
Syrian revolution. On that day, several Damascus districts rose against the
regime and officially opened a new front inside the capital. On July 15, 2012,
the revolution sank roots in the capital and put the regime on the defensive…”
Sarkis
Naoum, Hamadeh’s colleague and an-Nahar’s leading political analyst, says
U.S. military researchers recognize the regular Syrian army remains strong, well
equipped and cohesive, despite defections from its ranks. At the same time,
however, the researchers expect “the Syrian army’s vigorous fight back against
the rebels to wane for four major reasons,” namely:
(1) The armed rebels and the insurgents
who linked up with them to set up joint fighting formations are now “a force to
be reckoned with, despite their shortage of firepower and secure means of
communication. They retain the unflinching support of Syria’s Sunnite majority.
They proved their fighting prowess in urban and rural areas.” They set up a
chain of command and they learned the difference between fighting army regulars
and shabiha militiamen.
(2) Syria’s geography is such that lengthy
lines of communication and supply do not help the army and shabiha to keep up
their attacks on restive areas. “This means the regime can’t keep the whole
country under its control, which allows rebels to move more freely between
rural areas and cities. It’s what we call a 360-degree war.”
(3) The speed and frequency of military
operations since mid-May this year is increasing the army’s burden at an
increasing rate.
(4) Fighting fatigue, ceaseless
defections, mounting casualties and growing suspicions between Alawite
commanders and Sunnite rank and file soldiers are bound to wear away army
morale.
Nevertheless, The
Daily Telegraph reports today from Washington that the U.S. is refusing to
help Syrian rebels until after its presidential election.
Filing from Washington,
the paper’s Peter Foster writes in part:
Despite
mounting fury from the Syrian rebels, who are seeking assistance for their
efforts to overthrow the Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, the White House has
refused all requests for heavy weapons and intelligence support.
Syrian
lobby groups in Washington, who only a few weeks ago were expressing hope that
the Obama administration might give a green light to the supply of anti-tank
and anti-aircraft missiles, said they had now been forced to “take a reality
pill” by the US government.
The
Telegraph understands that the Syrian Support Group (SSG), the political wing
of the Free Syrian Army (FSA), recently presented American officials with a
document requesting 1,000 RPG-29 anti-tank missiles, 500 SAM-7 rockets, 750
23mm machine guns as well as body armor and secure satellite phones. They also
asked for $6m to pay rebel fighters as they battle the regime. All their
requests were rejected.
“Basically
the message is very clear; nothing is going to happen until after the election,
in fact nothing will happen until after inauguration [Jan 2013]. And that is
the same message coming from everyone, including the Turks and the Qataris,”
said a Washington lobbyist for the group…
Jonathan
Schanzer, vice president of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies
think-tank in Washington, [said], “The reality is that the US appears to have
no coherent foreign policy since the Arab Spring. It is not clear why we helped
topple Gaddafi and we let Mubarak fall but we let Assad stay in power...”
