Syrian rebels have captured a major army post in the southern city of Deraa after nearly two weeks of intense fighting, activists said. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which has a network of activists around the country, said rebel forces led by members of the the Nusra Front, captured the checkpoint on Friday after a two-week siege.
Rami Abdulrahman, the head of the Observatory, said the fall of the army post was strategically significant for Deraa, where protesters first marched against four decades of Assad family rule from the city’s Omari mosque in March 2011. “Now the army is under threat there. The rebels haven’t liberated all of the old city. There are still two neighbourhoods with soldiers, but this could change the balance of power there,” Abdulrahman told Reuters. The Syrian conflict began in Deraa as a peaceful protest movement against President Bashar al-Assad’s rule, but has spread across the country and degenerated into civil war.
