Syrian govt. leaflets scattered over Idlib province

PanARMENIAN.Net - Syrian government aircraft scattered leaflets over the northern province of Idlib on Wednesday, July 3, calling on rebels to hand themselves over and urging foreign fighters to return to their homelands, as regime troops pressed on with the battle to retake areas they had lost to the opposition, The Associated Press reports.

The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which has a network of activists on the ground, said 40 civilians and 70 fighters — both regime troops and rebels — were killed in clashes nationwide on Tuesday.

“Abandon your weapons and return to your family,” said one leaflet, aimed at the foreigner fighters.

“You have been tricked,” it read, according to a photograph of the leaflet obtained by the Observatory. An Idlib-based activist corroborated the leaflets.

Another leaflet gave instructions to rebels — foreign and local — to approach Syrian government checkpoints slowly and wave the paper in the air in a sign of surrender.

There was also fighting in towns on the outskirts of the capital Damascus, and the southern province of Daraa. Syrian troops, alongside fighters from the Lebanese Shiite Hezbollah group, were encircling the neighborhoods of Khaldiyeh and Bab Houd in the central city of Homs, which rebels have held for the past year.