Syrian rebels yesterday seized a Syrian military intelligence compound in the southern Hauran Plain near the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, according to rebel commanders.
The frontier, quiet since Israel and Syria agreed on a US-brokered ceasefire in 1974, has turned volatile in recent weeks, after opposition brigades stepped up attacks against army and intelligence compounds dotting the agricultural plain stretching from the border with Jordan to the Damascus outskirts.
The compound near the Yarmouk River in the town of Shagara, eight kilometres from a ceasefire line with Israel, fell after a five-day siege, the sources said.
“We have completely taken over this security compound this morning. It’s a command centre for the shabbiha (pro-Assad militia).
“They retreated after strong blows dealt to them during a five-day siege,” said Abu Iyas al-Haurani, a member of the Yarmouk Martyrs Brigade.
“Anyone who was arrested in the Yarmouk Valley was sent to this military intelligence headquarters to be tortured and it has a strategic importance.
“With its fall we have completed our liberation of the town of Shagara,” he added.
Another rebel commander said the aim of the attacks in Western Hauran is to open a new front in the fight against President Bashar al-Assad that would stretch troops deployed in Hauran, cradle of the two-year revolt, and to secure a supply route to the western approaches of Damascus.
Meanwhile, a brigadier general and about 20 soldiers defected from the Syrian army in two separate incidents on Saturday, activists said, in another sign that the strength of President Assad’s armed forces is diminishing.
Brigadier General Mohammed Khalouf appeared dressed in a camouflage military uniform in a video on Al Arabiya news channel and said he had planned his escape with the opposition movement for some time.
“It is not possible for anyone to accept any of the ideas of this regime unless they have achieved special interests,” he said in the video.
There was no comment about the defection on Syrian state news outlets.
Defection of high-ranking military and political figures has slowed in past months.
But a study by the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) published this week estimated that Assad’s forces, thought to be more than 300,000-strong at the start of the uprising two years ago, were now at a much lower effective strength and were likely to diminish further.