Battles Rage in Eastern Syria, Activists Say
The AP reports that heavy fighting broke out Monday on another active Syrian front, in the eastern province of Deir Ezzor. Controlling the assets of the oil-rich province, which borders Iraq, has been a high priority for both Assad’s government and rebel factions.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the fighting was concentrated in the eastern parts of the province. Many residents were forced to flee. Many local tribesmen have joined the battle, choosing to fight for Jabhat al-Nusra, al-Qaida’s Syrian arm, which has been battling the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant for supremacy there.
But no side in the province “has made major gains since last week’s capture of much of the western parts of the province by the Islamic State,” according to the Observatory and one activist who spoke to the wire.
Fallout from the Fall of Homs
The Economist reports from Homs as Syria’s third-largest city evacuates its remaining opposition fighters, a move that is particularly symbolic as Homs’s residents once “wholeheartedly” joined the then peaceful uprising against Assad, leading it to be dubbed “capital of the revolution.”
“’HUNGER is a killer,’ says Burhan, a 22-year-old rebel fighter who left Homs under a deal between the regime and rebel forces in February. On May 7 the remaining rebels in Homs’s old city agreed to leave too, handing the city over to regime control. The deal was brokered by Iran, Damascus’s main ally, after the last rebel-held neighborhood had been besieged by Mr. Assad’s troops for two years.
“Syrian rebels framed the withdrawal as a sign of the opposition’s humanity, refusing, unlike the regime, to cause residents of the city to suffer further. The regime has surrounded rebel-held districts, shelling them as well as blocking food from entering and people from leaving in an attempt to force locals to submit. But other Syrians mourned the deal, seeing it as a blow in the fight against Mr Assad.”
Kerry Told Syrian Rebels ‘We Wasted a Year’ in Fight Against Assad
The Daily Beast reports that U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry told opposition officials visiting Washington, D.C., that the Obama administration, which has been accused of dragging its feet in Syria, “wasted a year” in the fight against Bashar al-Assad.
“The various countries trying to help the Free Syrian Army had failed to coordinate their efforts effectively for a long time, Kerry said inside the private meeting last Thursday with Syrian Opposition Coalition president Ahmad Jarba, according to three participants in the meeting. And that lack of coordination had dramatically set back the drive to stop Assad’s rampage and counter the growing terrorism threat.
“Participants said Kerry made the remark in the context of a discussion about renewed efforts to coordinate the flow of both aid and weapons to the Syrian rebels. Earlier this year, the intelligence chiefs of several Arab countries came to Washington to work on concentrating the flow of aid away from more extremist elements, and towards moderate rebels such as the FSA.”
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