May 19, 2019
Syrian rebels (click here) held onto a commanding position in a mountain range in the coastal province of Latakia, the ancestral home of Syrian President Bashar Assad, after government forces were forced to withdraw.
They said the army's attempt was the latest of several costly campaigns to seize Kubayna, after it mounted an offensive last month with Russian air power to retake main highways and trade arteries around Idlib and northern Hama now in rebel hands, that have fragmented the country's war-torn economy.
The northwest represents the last big piece of territory held by rebels opposed to Assad. The coastal province of Latakia is home to the Assad family's Alawite minority.
"Whoever controls Kubayna ensures a large stretch of territory is effectively under their firing range. The regime wants it to protect its coastal villages from rebel fire," said Major Youssef Hamoud, spokesman for the Turkey-backed group of mainstream rebels called the National Army.
An official from Tahrir Al Sham, the latest incarnation of the former Al Nusra Front which was part of Al Qaeda, said poison gas was used in the army's attack on their position on the mountain slopes in an attempt to regain control.
Abu Baraa Al Shami, a fighter based there, told Reuters that several fighters suffered choking symptoms.
The army denied the claim and said it was continuing to fight terrorism, with state media earlier saying the military had struck at Al Qaeda terrorists in the last foothold in Latakia province that has long been a launching pad for drone attacks on the main Russian base of Hmeimim nearby....
How noble, Assad is still fighting terrorists rather than being one.
