Syrian rebels reportedly capture military post near Jordan border

PanARMENIAN.Net - Syrian rebels have reportedly captured a military post south of the country on the border with Jordan after four days of fighting.

According to the Associated Press, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says 26 soldiers were killed in the battle as well as a number of rebels, including seven foreign fighters.

The post that was captured early Saturday, Sept 28, served in the past as the customs office on the border with Jordan. It was turned into an army post years ago.

The post is in the southern city of Daraa where the uprising against President Bashar Assad's regime began in March 2011.

On Friday, the UN Security Council adopted a resolution that demands the eradication of Syria's chemical weapons but does not threaten automatic punitive action against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government if it does not comply.

The unanimous vote by the 15-member Security Council capped weeks of intense diplomacy between Russia and the United States. It was based on a deal between the two countries reached in Geneva earlier this month following an August 21 sarin nerve gas attack on a Damascus suburb that killed hundreds.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said after the vote that the big powers hoped to hold a peace conference on Syria in mid-November in Geneva.

He told the council the plan to eradicate Syria's chemical weapons was "not a license to kill with conventional weapons."

"As we mark this important step, we must never forget that the catalog of horrors in Syria continues with bombs and tanks, grenades and guns," he said. "A red light for one form of weapons does not mean a green light for others."

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said the vote showed that "actions have consequences."

"Our original objective was to degrade and deter Syria's chemical weapons capability. And the option of military force that President Obama has kept on the table could have achieved that. But tonight's resolution accomplishes even more - through peaceful means, it will for the first time seek to eliminate entirely a nation's chemical weapons capability," he said.

The resolution does not allow for automatic punitive action in the form of military strikes or sanctions if Syria does not comply. At Russia's insistence, Friday's resolution makes clear a second council decision would be needed for that.

But Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the Security Council would be prepared to take punitive steps in the event of confirmed violations of the resolution by either side in the conflict.

"The United Nations Security Council ... will stand ready to take action under Chapter 7 of the (UN) charter, quite clearly," he said.

The uprising later turned into a civil war that killed more than 100,000 people, according to the UN. .