Syria army in full control of rebel town Yabrud: state TV

DAMASCUS, Syria – Syrian troops on Sunday, March 16, seized full control of the rebel bastion Yabrud in the strategic Qalamun region near the Lebanese border, Syrian state media reported.

“Our brave armed forces have full control over Yabrud in Damascus province and are combing through the town and removing explosive devices placed by terrorists,” state television said, citing a military source.

It said troops had arrested and killed large numbers of “terrorists” – the regime’s term for all opponents.

And it added that the army was targeting fighters fleeing Yabrud between the village of Fleita in Syria and the town of Arsal just across the border in Lebanon.

A security source in Damascus said the army would now move to completely sever opposition access to supply routes running across the Lebanese border.

He said government forces planned to secure Fleita and nearby Rankus in the Qalamun region and the area around the famed Krak des Chevaliers castle in Homs, where the army recently won control of the strategic village of Zara.

Opposition sources said civilians and activists from Yabrud had fled across the border into Lebanon overnight before the town fell.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based NGO, said Lebanon’s Shiite Hezbollah movement was leading the charge in Yabrud.

“Hezbollah forces supported by Syrian regime troops and the pro-regime National Defense Forces militia have taken control of large parts of Yabrud,” the group said.

It reported continuing clashes in parts of the city between government and allied forces and fighters from jihadist and Islamist groups.

The loss of the Yabrud will be a symbolic and practical blow for the opposition.

It has been a rebel stronghold since early in the uprising that began in March 2011 and has proved a key strategic prize because of its proximity to smuggling routes across the Lebanese border.

It also lies on the important highway that connects Damascus to Syria’s third city Homs.

Hezbollah, which has dispatched its well-trained fighters to bolster the government’s forces, is believed to have played a key role in the capture of Yabrud.

The group’s involvement in the conflict has prompted retaliatory bomb attacks against its strongholds in Lebanon.

Hezbollah and Lebanese security forces have said many of the car bombs used in attacks against the group in Lebanon originated in Yabrud and were driven across the border. – Rappler.com