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Syrian Forces Seize Key Town From Rebels Syrian Government Forces Seize Town in a Deep Blow to Opposition
(about 11 hours later)
BEIRUT, Lebanon — Syrian government forces on Sunday swept into the center of Yabrud, a town long held by rebels near the Lebanese border, in an advance that appeared to be a significant blow for insurgents as the Syrian conflict entered its fourth year. BEIRUT, Lebanon — When Syrian government forces on Sunday swept into Yabrud, a town long held by rebels near the Lebanese border, it was a symbolic turning point for insurgents and government supporters alike in a conflict now heading into its fourth year.
Government forces, backed by Hezbollah, the Lebanese militia, have spent weeks edging toward Yabrud, a critical transit point for militants, refugees and arms heading in and out of Lebanon. Yabrud was a rallying point for the government and its allies in the Lebanese militia Hezbollah, who were instrumental in the fight, just as they were when they helped take another crucial border town, Qusayr, last spring. Thirteen Syrian nuns had been held hostage by insurgents in Yabrud until last week, and the government had long said that the town harbored a factory that was making the car bombs that have killed scores in southern Beirut in recent months.
Syrian state television declared on Sunday that the army had taken “full control” of Yabrud, and Hezbollah’s Al Manar channel showed its correspondent chatting with men in uniform in a central square. For Syrian opposition activists and some rebels, Yabrud had been a model of what they had hoped for from the uprising that began with peaceful protests in March 2011, a dream that seems to be receding. Before foreign fighters and Syrians with a more radical bent arrived in greater numbers late last year, it was a place where civilians, not fighters, held sway. Residents had governed themselves: collecting trash, keeping order and sheltering thousands of displaced Syrians. Christians and Muslims still lived together, and a negotiated understanding with government forces kept the town relatively unscathed.
But insurgents and opposition activists said that while Syrian government forces and Hezbollah fighters had seized the momentum and moved into large parts of the town, some insurgents remained and sought to continue guerrilla strikes. But now the news from Yabrud is likely to deepen the despair of Syria’s opposition. A month of bombardments by the military exacted a heavy toll on the rebels there, who were also weakened by the failure of the exile opposition to unite and support the fighters, while an influx of jihadists undermined their claims to moderation and made them more of a target.
Hundreds of insurgents were fleeing to other border areas, and there was speculation that large numbers could try to enter Lebanon across the porous border, potentially accelerating the spread of conflict into Syria’s neighbor. Across Syria, insurgents are fighting one another, the humanitarian crisis is growing unabated and the government of President Bashar al-Assad is making gradual advances on several fronts. Perhaps most significantly, it has succeeded in sowing division among its opponents by offering local truces — some view them as surrender — to areas it has long blockaded and bombarded. Opponents of the truces call those who accept them traitors, and in return are accused of neglecting the plight of civilians.
Yabrud is a tactical and symbolic prize for both sides. Early in the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad, which began in March 2011, some Muslims and Christians in Yabrud worked together to protest against the government, and residents later governed themselves in an orderly manner. But tensions increased after foreign and Syrian fighters from the Nusra Front entered the town several months ago, and some local residents joined them. On Sunday, opposition fugitives from Yabrud wondered whether such a deal was behind the town’s fall. A fighter from Yabrud who fled to Lebanon on Saturday said he had been ordered to retreat. He said fighters then told him that last week’s deal to release the nuns — negotiated by Qatar, which backs the insurgents, the Syrian government and a Yabrud businessman who is reported to have ties to Russia — included a provision that the Nusra Front, the radical jihadist group that held the nuns, would retreat in return for safe passage.
Still, the town remained relatively unscathed by war until recently, in part because a wealthy pro-government resident had taken on the role of mediator in talks with the government to help keep the fighting at bay. But when the government advance gathered steam more than a month ago, aerial bombardments began, sending new streams of refugees into Lebanon. “If that’s right,” said the fighter, who gave only a nom de guerre, Abu Omar, “that means I’m stupid and it’s all about money — or food.”
The Syrian revolt, which began as a largely peaceful movement for political rights, has transformed into a bloody war that has killed an estimated 150,000 people. Casting some doubt on that theory, Abu Azzam al-Kuwaiti, a Nusra commander who freed the nuns in return for the release of government prisoners, including his wife and children, was killed in Saturday’s fighting.
Opposition activists said that one of many fighters who fell in battle was a leader of the Nusra Front who had helped negotiate an unusual prisoner exchange last week. In Beirut, the wife of a rebel fighter from Yabrud burst into tears on Sunday after losing contact with her husband. It was odd, she said, that the town had fallen so suddenly after a long period of slow government advances.
Activists in and around Yabrud said the fighter, Abu Azzam al-Kuwaiti, had been killed in fierce combat in the area. Activists said he was a citizen of Kuwait. Foreign and local fighters in the area have worked together, sometimes with tensions, and some local residents have joined the Nusra Front, which has been designated a terrorist group by the United States. “There is something missing in the picture,” she said.
Abu Azzam helped negotiate the release of women and children held by the Syrian government, including members of his own family, in exchange for 13 nuns and three attendants held hostage by the front, a deal that incited a backlash from government supporters. A video of the exchange showed him reuniting with his children. But while the insurgents had the advantage of mountainous terrain, they were outgunned by Hezbollah fighters and government warplanes. On Saturday the woman’s husband, who asked to be identified only as Abu al-Majd, had said that Syrian aircraft dropped 10 barrel bombs on the town.
He had complained bitterly about the exile opposition coalition, which had recently pledged cash to support the rebel fighters and the local government, and for the construction of a bakery. The money never arrived, he said, calling the exiles a “bunch of liars and hypocrites.”
Abu al-Majd’s story typifies the strengths and weaknesses of Yabrud’s opposition, perhaps one of the most moderate and diverse branches of the movement against Mr. Assad.
He commanded a local group of insurgents, many of them, like him, speakers of Syriac, a language spoken by Christians and by Muslims whose ancestors converted from Christianity. A civilian council ran the town, and pro-government residents mediated discussions with government officials to protect their property interests. Though Islamist insurgents tried to make inroads, they were largely rebuffed or ignored, and Christian women and some Muslims, like Abu al-Majd’s wife, continued to wear their hair uncovered.
Abu al-Majd carried a gun, although as recently as last fall, his wife said, “he hasn’t had to kill anyone.” But his group was no match for the changes in the town and the nature of the conflict that began last fall. The local government commander, whose willingness to make deals with insurgents had helped keep the peace, was replaced, raising fears of a government assault. Around the same time, insurgents from elsewhere — Syrians and foreigners — attacked the nearby Christian town of Maaloula over the objections of local groups like Abu al-Majd’s, sharpening tensions.
The local fighters’ response was ambivalent; they needed the more battle-hardened and better-armed fighters in case of a government attack, and ultimately they lacked the power to repel them.
Then came the assault. By last week, Abu al-Majd’s mood was swinging wildly. One day he would pronounce himself confident, the next he would weep with despair.
On Sunday in Yabrud, Al Manar, Hezbollah’s television channel, filmed pro-government militiamen relaxing, boasting of an easy fight. Syrian state television said the government was in full control. Khaled, an Islamist fighter, said that some Nusra fighters remained and had planted bombs.
The government has denied insurgents a haven and a supply route, shoring up the corridor from Damascus to the government-held coast and freeing resources for other fronts.
But the takeover of Yabrud may not restore normal government control; residents of Qusayr, taken nine months ago, say it remains a Hezbollah-patrolled ghost town. And a Hezbollah member of Parliament in Lebanon, Waleed Sukariyeh, told Al Jadeed television that it could backfire if fleeing rebels shift attacks to Lebanon.
“Rockets will rain on Baalbek,” he said. “We will have involved Lebanon in a war.”
Hezbollah supporters in Beirut celebrated with gunfire on Sunday. But before midnight, a suicide car bomb killed four people in the Bekaa Valley, near the border. Lebanese media reported that two Hezbollah members who were chasing the car were killed.
An Islamist insurgent, Abu Osama, said he was already in Lebanon and on the offensive.
“If we’re obliged, we will operate all over Lebanon,” he said.