Global Security Watch by Fred H. Lawson

Author:Fred H. Lawson
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780313359583
Publisher: ABC-CLIO

THE REGIME STRIKES BACK

March 14, 2012, saw the beginning of a renewed military assault on the towns and villages around Dir‘a in the south, which took place immediately after residents of the province staged a wave of protests to mark the one-year anniversary of the outbreak of the uprising.102 Four days later, troops cracked down on FSA fighters in the Damascus suburb of Mazzah. By March 20, FSA units and independent militias were pulling out of various parts of Jabal al-Zawiyyah, as well as from the environs of Dair al-Zur in the east.103 Government forces then attacked the Bab Sba‘ah district of Homs and launched a further offensive against Hamah and the towns of Saraqib and al-Qusair.104 As regular army troops left Idlib for the front lines, the authorities turned the city over to shabbihah, who ransacked businesses and houses looking for FSA stragglers.105 Tank and artillery fire targeted Hamah and A‘zaz as the month drew to a close.

While opposition militias steadily gave ground to regime forces, Islamist militants turned to more indiscriminate tactics. Two large bombs exploded outside Air Force Intelligence and police buildings in Damascus on March 17; a day later, an office of General Security in Aleppo was hit by a car bomb.106 Leaders of the FSA immediately disavowed responsibility for the bombings and charged that they had been carried out by the regime in an attempt to “terrorize” the populations of the two metropolises.107 On March 20, a shadowy group calling itself the Assistance Front for the People of Syria claimed to have ordered the bombings in Damascus.

In an effort to regroup, the SNC called for all components of the opposition to join it in Istanbul to forge a “national pact” that would lay out a unified strategy to combat the Ba‘thi regime. The invitation was ignored by the SNC’s primary rivals, the National Coordinating Committee of the Forces for Democratic Change and the Union of Coordinating Committees for the Syrian Revolution. Shortly after the congress opened, a handful of Kurdish parties that had agreed to attend in the hope of reconciling with the SNC walked out, complaining that the draft platform failed to envisage the establishment of a secular democratic order.108 The National Change Current, whose representatives did attend the meeting, refused to sign the platform.109 Discussion of the future of the Revolutionary Military Council was virtually absent, although the SNC announced that in future it would pay members of the FSA a regular salary out of funds provided by Qatar and Saudi Arabia.

While the SNC met in Istanbul, Syrian troops struck the Lebanese border town of Mashirah al-Qaa in hot pursuit of a formation of FSA fighters. Saraqib was retaken by government forces on March 28, and the fighting shifted to Qala‘ah al-Madiq in western Hamah province. A particularly brutal attack was directed at the village of Taftanaz outside Idlib in early April, which left more than 90 residents dead.110 Antiregime activists survived in al-Hasakah and al-Qamishli and organized sizable protests against the destruction that was being inflicted on the north-central provinces after Friday prayers on April 6, 2012.

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