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A tank belonging to the forces of Syria's President Bashar al-Assad is seen at Al-Sahl town, about 2km (a mile) to Yabroud's north, after the soldiers took control of it from the rebel fighters, in this March 3, 2014 handout photograph distributed by Syria's national news agency SANA.
Credit: Reuters/SANA/Handout via Reuters

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syrian government forces backed by Lebanon's Hezbollah took control of a town just outside Damascus from Islamist fighters on Thursday, a blow to the rebels who had held it for more than a year.

Syrian state television broadcast showed government soldiers in the streets of Mleiha, which lies on the edge of the eastern Ghouta region near Damascus airport and had been surrounded by President Bashar al-Assad's forces. Buildings were damaged or reduced to rubble, and tanks patrolled the streets.

Mleiha, about 7 km (4 miles) from the heart of Damascus, has formed a base for rebel fighters to bombard the capital with mortars in Syria's three-year-old civil war.

The Britain-based, pro-opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said government warplanes attacked several areas in the town. A Syrian rebel source said government forces had taken most of Mleiha and were using planes to attack the last point of resistance. Some of the rebels pulled out to nearby villages.

"Everything here is now under the control of the Syrian Arab Army," a soldier standing near a damaged building told state TV.

"The town of Mleiha is the biggest in Ghouta and used to be a supply route for the gunmen. This will lead to the fall of other towns into the hands of the army," said an army commander.

Government forces have pushed back the rebels around Damascus with help from Hezbollah, and consolidated Assad's grip over central Syria and along the border with Lebanon.

The main rebel factions have also lost territory to the Islamic State (IS), an al Qaeda splinter group that has declared a caliphate on lands it has captured in both Syria and Iraq.

The group has been advancing in the northern region of Aleppo in the past 24 hours, seizing several towns and villages from rival Islamists and carrying out executions, the Observatory and opposition activists said.

Already in control of large areas of northern and eastern Syria, Islamic State's latest gains include the towns of Turkmen Bareh and Akhtarin, 50 km (30 miles) northeast of Aleppo.

Late on Wednesday they advanced to nearby towns including Dabeg and Azizeyeh, now controlling a belt of towns close to the Turkish border.
Survivors from Akhtarin told the Observatory that the group assembled the local men in the town square, looking for fighters who oppose them. They said nine men were beheaded.

Islamic State sympathisers posted on social media pictures of what they said were some of the group's fighters inside Akhtarin. It showed two fighters with thick beards celebrating by burning a flag of a rival group. Two others raised the black and white flag of IS over what appeared to be a telecom tower.

It was not possible to independently verify the accounts.
(Writing by Tom Perry/Mariam Karouny; Editing by Mark Trevelyan)
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sumber: http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/...0GE0QK20140814
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Syrian Soldiers Seize Damascus Suburb of Mleiha

Lebanese army soldiers search civilians at a checkpoint at the entrance of Arsal, a Sunni Muslim town near the Syrian border in eastern Lebanon, some 88 kilometers (54 miles) from the capital, Beirut, Feb. 2, 2013. AP Photo/Bilal Hussein, File)

BEIRUT—Syrian government troops captured a fiercely contested suburb of the capital Thursday after five months of heavy fighting, flushing rebels from their last hideouts and quickly moving to crush pockets of resistance in the surrounding countryside, activists and state media said.

The fall of Mleiha, located some 10 kilometers (6 miles) southeast of downtown Damascus, marks the latest setback for rebels around the capital. Over the past year, the opposition has watched as one stronghold after another has either slipped into government hands or been forced to strike lopsided truces.

The military’s campaign around Damascus has succeeded in pushing the rebels farther from the heart of the city, while also strengthening President Bashar Assad’s once shaky hold on the capital.

Assad’s forces have waged a ferocious offensive since April to try to dislodge rebels from Mleiha, pounding the town with airstrikes and artillery. Both sides placed a premium on controlling Mleiha because of its strategic location near the highway to the Damascus airport, as well the opposition stronghold of eastern Ghouta.

Government troops backed by fighters from the Lebanese Hezbollah, a Shiite militant group, finally seized the town Thursday, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

“Mleiha is under government control, but there is still fighting in the areas surrounding the town,” said Observatory director Rami Abdurrahman.

Syrian TV said army units have restored peace and security to Mleiha after destroying the last of the terrorist groups there. The government calls those fighting to topple Assad terrorists.

Syrian state TV and Lebanon’s Al-Mayadeen and Al-Manar TV stations broadcast live from the northern part of Mleiha Thursday. The footage showed bombed out buildings and dusty, rubble-strewn streets. Electricity cables dangled from apartment blocks.

“The Syrian army carried out early Thursday a critical military operation on the edges of the town through which it was able to take by surprise and destroy large numbers of Nusra Front terrorists,” Syrian TV said, referring to the al-Qaida-affiliated rebel group.

It showed soldiers waving their rifles in the air and shouting pro-Syria slogans in celebration. The krackle of gunfire could be heard, which the correspondent said was fighting on the edge of the town.
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sumber: http://www.theepochtimes.com/n3/8763...urb-of-mleiha/
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Army establishes control over al-Mleiha town in Damascus Countryside

Damascus Countryside, SANA – Following months of operations against terrorists who had entrenched themselves in the town, the Syrian Arab Army established control of al-Mleiha in Damascus Countryside on Thursday, August 14.

A statement issued by the General Command of the Army and Armed Forces said that Syrian Arab Army units, assisted by civil defense groups, managed to carry out the task of restoring security and stability to al-Mleiha and the surrounding farms in the Eastern Ghouta area.



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sumber: http://www.sana.sy/en/?p=10134
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Syrian army takes town outside Damascus


Syrian government forces backed by Lebanon’s Hezbollah took almost full control of a town just outside Damascus from Islamist rebels on Thursday, a pro-opposition monitoring group said, a blow to the rebels who had held it for more than a year.

Syrian state television also reported big progress for government forces in the town of Mleiha, which lies on the edge of the eastern Ghouta region near Damascus airport and has been surrounded by President Bashar al-Assad’s forces.
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sumber: http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News...Damascus-.html
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Maaaaju tak gentaaaaarrrr, membeeeeela yang benaaaar !!!
Gw harap TNI / Polri / BIN / Lemhanas / Kesbangpol jg mantau Konflik Syria ini, buat nambah2 pustaka ttg taktik n strategi.
Semoga cepat selesai konfliknya
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Tambahan, dalam operasi Mleiha ini , gugur Komandan Arhanud Suriah gan: Mayjen Husein Ishaq . . .
ini videonya
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v...41501712617685