BEIRUT -- Hundreds of Islamic militants fighting to topple Syrian
President Bashar Assad seized parts of a strategic northwestern air
base Thursday after weeks of battling government troops for control of
the sprawling facility.
At stake is the biggest field for helicopters used to bomb rebel-held areas in the north and deliver supplies for regime forces.
MORE: Syria slams West for rejecting Assad peace plan
Opposition
fighters and activists said rebels broke into Taftanaz air base in the
northern Idlib province Wednesday night and by Thursday had seized
control of more than half of it. Intense battles were still raging, and
one activist said rebels had suffered losses.
On Thursday evening,
an activist near Taftanaz said the government bombed the air base from
warplanes in a desperate attempt to push back rebels who seized several
helicopters. The account from the activist, who requested anonymity out
of fear of reprisals, could not immediately be confirmed.
An
amateur video posted by activists online showed smoke rising from behind
helicopters parked at the Taftanaz tarmac, and a narrator said it was
the result of an airstrike. The video appeared consistent with
Associated Press reporting.
Meanwhile, Iran's official IRNA news
agency said 48 former captives held for more than five months returned
on Thursday to Tehran after being freed by Syrian rebels in the first
major prisoner swap of the civil war.
The rebel attack on the
Taftanaz base is part of a wider attempt to chip away at the Syrian
regime's air supremacy, which poses the biggest obstacle to the
opposition fighters' advances.
As its control of large swaths of
territory has slipped over the past year, the government has
increasingly relied on its warplanes and helicopters to strike
rebel-held areas.
MORE: Defiant Assad pledges to continue fighting in Syria
The rebels have been besieging Taftanaz for months and launched an offensive to take the base in early November.
Its
fall would be an embarrassing blow to the regime but not fully stop
airstrikes by government jets, many of which come from bases farther
south.
"If the fighters seize full control of Taftanaz air base
and manage to keep it, it would be the first major military airport to
fall into rebel hands," said Rami Abdul-Rahman, director of the
Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Taftanaz lies
near the highway between the capital Damascus and the northern city of
Aleppo, a major front in a civil war that has locked rebels and
government troops in a stalemate for months. Several past rebel attempts
to capture the Taftanaz base have failed.
Abdul-Rahman, who
relies on a network of activists on the ground in Syria, said the rebels
involved in the attack on Taftanaz were Islamic militants. He said
estimated their number to be about 700 and said they included members of
Jabhat al-Nusra, affiliated with al-Qaida, and groups with a similar
Islamic ideology.
Members of al-Nusra, which the U.S. has branded a
terrorist organization, have been among the most effective fighters in
the rebels' battle to oust Assad.
The opposition has seized
several other air defense bases in the north and Damascus suburbs,
making off with weapons and ammunition but in most cases have not
managed to retain the facilities.
The conflict began in March 2011
with peaceful protests against the Assad family dynasty, which has
ruled Syria for four decades. But a ferocious crackdown on demonstrators
led many to take up arms against the government, and the uprising soon
transformed into a civil war.
As the death toll mounted, Assad, a
47-year-old eye doctor by training, has become a global pariah. Russia,
China and Iran are among his last remaining allies, and the Iranians who
were held captive in Syria were a major bargaining chip for factions
trying to bring down his regime.
The former captives left Damascus
on a special flight Thursday, a day after rebels freed the group in
exchange for the release of more than 2,000 prisoners held by Syrian
authorities.
Iran's state TV broadcast images of the 48 Iranians
walking down the steps at Mehrabad airport in Tehran. They were greeted
by Foreign Ministry officials, lawmakers and about 300 relatives and
friends.
Some family members and the freed prisoners burst into
tears and embraced each other as they saw their loved ones for the first
time after more than five months in captivity. While relatives greeted
them with flowers, others whistled as the 48 showed up one by one.
The prisoner release was the result of a deal struck after rare negotiations involving regional powers Turkey, Qatar and Iran.
Rebels
claimed the captives were linked to Iran's powerful Revolutionary
Guard, but Tehran has denied that, saying the men were pilgrims visiting
Shiite religious sites in Syria.
Also Thursday, Syria accused the
joint U.N.-Arab League peace envoy of "flagrant bias," further
complicating diplomatic efforts to end the bloodshed.
In a
strongly worded statement, Syria's Foreign Ministry criticized
international envoy Lakhdar Brahimi for comments he made to the media,
saying he has "diverted from the core of his mission" in favor of those
who "conspire" against Syria.
The statement was the strongest
criticism of Brahimi since he took over the post last summer after
veteran diplomat Kofi Annan stepped down in frustration.
In a BBC
interview, Brahimi called for real, not cosmetic change in Syria and
accused Assad of resisting the aspirations of his people.
"The time of reforms granted magnanimously from above is past," Brahimi said.
"I
think that what people (in Syria) are saying is that a family ruling
for 40 years is a little bit too long so the change has to be real," he
added. "I think that President Assad could take the lead in responding
to the aspirations of his people rather than resisting it."
Brahimi's
comments during a visit to Cairo came a few days after Assad outlined
his vision for a peace initiative that would keep him in power to
oversee a national reconciliation conference, elections and a new
government.
In a speech Sunday, a defiant Assad ignored
international demands to step down and said he was ready to talk - but
only with those "who have not betrayed Syria."
The opposition rejected his offer, which also drew harsh international criticism.
Thursday's
statement from the Foreign Ministry expressed Syria's "astonishment" at
Brahimi's remarks and said he "blatantly showed bias toward sides known
for conspiring against Syria and the Syrian people."
"We had
expected Brahimi to read and analyze the contents of (Assad's proposed)
political initiative, which is the only exit to the Syrian crisis," the
ministry said.
At least 60,000 people have been killed in the war,
according to a recent U.N. estimate, and all international efforts so
far to bring about a peaceful transition have failed.
Despite
significant rebel advances on the battlefield, the opposition remains
outgunned by government forces and has been unable to break a stalemate
on the ground.
In Brussels, a NATO official said the alliance on
Wednesday detected the launch of an unguided, short-range ballistic
missile in the country.
The official, who spoke to the AP on
condition of anonymity in line with the alliance's rules, also said
Assad's forces fired ballistic missiles at opposition-held areas twice
earlier this month. The official said all the missiles were fired from
inside Syria at unconfirmed targets in the north.
Associated Press