Syrian rebels reinforce frontline, deploy more men, missiles

PanARMENIAN.Net - Insurgents in Syria are deploying more men and weapons, including significant quantities of anti-tank missiles, to resist ground attacks by the Syrian army and its allies, backed by Russian air strikes, rebels and a monitoring group said on Tuesday, October 13, acording to Reuters.

With help from Lebanon's Hezbollah and Iranian soldiers, Syria is trying to drive insurgents from western areas that are crucial to President Bashar al-Assad's survival, and has recaptured a number of towns in the provinces of Hama and Latakia.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a British-based group tracking the war, said a battle continued for control of the town of Kafr Nabuda in Hama province, which the army said it captured on Monday. At least 25 fighters on the government's side were killed, it said.

The Observatory's director Rami Abdulrahman identified most of the reinforcing fighters as members of jihadist groups. "The (rebel) reinforcements stopped the regime from taking Kfar Nabuda," he said.

A number of rebel groups backed by Assad's foreign enemies and operating under the banner of the "Free Syrian Army" have deployed anti-tank missiles along a frontline stretching from Kafr Nabuda to the town of Maan some 30 km (20 miles) to the east, said Fares al-Bayoush, a former Syrian army colonel who heads the Fursan al-Haq group.

The aim is to stop government forces advancing north from Morek to rebel-held Khan Shaykhoun, both towns on a north-south highway linking the city of Hama to Aleppo and Idlib.

The rebels have been using guided anti-tank, or TOW, missiles to hit tanks and other army vehicles. "We have an excellent supply of missiles," Bayoush said.