Activists Say Syria Rebels Raid Homs, Create Council in East
Syrian opposition activists say rebels have put more pressure on President Bashar al-Assad, launching an offensive to retake a former rebel stronghold in central Syria and establishing a religious council in the east.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said rebels stormed the Baba Amr district of the central city of Homs Sunday, about a year after better-armed government forces drove them out in a battle that killed many civilians. Assad had visited Baba Amr last March to mark that victory and promised to rehabilitate the devastated neighborhood.
Elsewhere, the Observatory said an Islamist group has proclaimed a new religious council in eastern Syria, where rebels have seized large areas as part of a two-year uprising against President Assad's 12-year autocratic rule.
An opposition video uploaded to YouTube on Saturday appears to show an Islamist convoy draped with black flags driving through an eastern town and attaching a banner to a building, declaring the creation of an Islamist council for the region. The Observatory said the body intends to exert control over judicial and police affairs.
Earlier this month, rebels captured the eastern city of Raqqa, the first provincial capital to fall into rebel hands since the rebellion started. Videos posted to the Internet on Saturday purportedly show the al-Qaida linked Jabhat al-Nusra Front interrogating two of Assad's representatives in Raqqa, the provincial governor and the local head of the ruling Baath party.
In another development, U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres said the flood of Syrians fleeing the country's civil war has intensified rapidly in recent months, rising from 3,000 a day in December to 8,000 a day last month.
"This shows you the staggering escalation that we are witnessing. Now, if this escalation goes on - and nothing happens to solve the problem - we might have in the end of the year a much larger number of refugees, two or three times the present level."
The United Nations said last week the number of Syrian refugees has risen to an estimated one million people, with most concentrated in Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan.
Guterres said Sunday about 400,000 Syrians are believed to be in Turkey. He was speaking on a visit to the Turkish capital, Ankara, to coordinate assistance to the refugees.
Source: Voice of America
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