Rebels declare Damascus Airport a military zone

PanARMENIAN.Net - Rebels fighting in the Syrian capital declared Damascus International Airport a military zone on Friday, Dec 7, warning civilians and airlines not to approach it, Reuters reported.

“The rebel brigades who have been putting the airport under siege decided yesterday that the airport is a fair target,” said Nabil al-Amir, a spokesman for the rebels’ Damascus Military Council. “The airport is now full of armored vehicles and soldiers ... Civilians who approach it now do so at their own risk.”

Meanwhile, the Syrian army fired rockets into and reinforced its positions around two Damascus suburbs on Friday, resident opposition activists said, as it battles to isolate the centre of the capital from recent rebel offensives.

Opposition activists said forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad had sent troops backed up by tanks to Moadamiah and Daraya, suburbs to the south west of the city that are close to a large military airport.

If rebels can hold those two districts they will have a continuous arc of control from the northeast to southwest of the capital, cornering Damascus against the Qasioun mountain range.

“Fifteen tanks arrived at the edge of Moadamiah this morning after and a night of very heavy artillery shelling and rocket fire into the suburbs,” said an activist who asked not to be named.

“They are trying to storm the area,” he added.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition-linked monitor, said that troops were massing on the outskirts of the areas in preparation for an advance.

Rebels have made advances of the outskirts of the capital and taken several military bases around the country in recent weeks but Assad’s superior military power has leveled opposition-held areas with aerial and artillery strikes.