Saturday, September 1, 2012

Opposition fighters in #Syria said early Saturday had captured an air defense base in Deir el-Zour


Air Base in Syria Has Been Captured, Opposition Says
BEIRUT, Lebanon — Opposition fighters in Syria said early Saturday that they had captured an air defense base in the eastern province of Deir el-Zour, taking at least 16 soldiers captive and seizing weapons and ammunition in what appeared to be part of a broader rebel offensive against Syrian military installations across the country.
Joseph Eid/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Prisoners walked out of the central police station in Damascus on Saturday after the authorities released 158 detainees there.
Multimedia
Rebel fighters in the province also attacked a military air base, according to activist groups, the third attack on an air force site in the past few days. Last week, rebel commanders claimed to have destroyed several helicopters during attacks on two separate military airports in Idlib Province.
Grainy videos that activists said were taken in the aftermath of the assault on the air defense base showed rebels strolling in a darkened building, with the bodies of government soldiers lying on the ground and crates of ammunition strewn about. The videos show rocket-propelled grenade rounds, heavy machine-gun ammunition and what appear to be shoulder-fired antiaircraft missiles. It is not clear whether some of the missiles have the necessary components to make them functional.
Opposition fighters have been desperate to acquire antiaircraft weapons to counter the Syrian government’s increasing and often indiscriminate use of air power. At the same time, their efforts to acquire the missiles have also raised concerns about the spread of those weapons in the region.
Meanwhile, Syrian warplanes and ground forces bombarded Aleppo on Saturday and soldiers clashed with rebels in the city’s narrow streets, activists told The Associated Press.
Also on Saturday, Syria’s official state news agency said that the government had released more than 300 people it had detained recently during fighting in the Damascus suburbs, Homs, Aleppo and Dara’a. The news agency said the detainees were “involved in recent events” but had committed no crimes. It was not clear why they had been held.
In recent days, activists and filmmakers have expressed concern about the fate of Orwa Nyrabia, a Syrian filmmaker whose friends believe was arrested at the Damascus airport more than a week ago. Mr. Nyrabia, the founder of the annual Damascus Dox Box Film Festival, was arrested on Aug. 23 as he was preparing to travel to Cairo, according to relatives and colleagues quoted by Reuters.
C. J. Chivers contributed reporting.