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Operation Room Coordinates Battles in Southern Syria

Efforts are underway to coordinate between the southern and northern fronts
Operation Room Coordinates Battles in Southern Syria

Informed sources told al-Hayat that a common operations room has been established in Jordan to coordinate the opposition's operations against Assad's troops in the south of the country.

 

The formation of the operations room comes simultaneously with pressure to reach a "compromise" inside the military council of the Free Syrian Army to cooperate between the southern and northern fronts.

 

Meanwhile, the Syrian regime has linked its cooperation in executing U.N.'s resolution No. 2139, related to the delivery of humanitarian aid to  "respecting the sovereignty of the country".

 

And an opposition leader said representatives of political blocs in the opposition Syrian National Council met in Istanbul two days ago to discuss "the consequences of the new situation after Geneva II, and the signs of change in the American position towards providing the opposition with quality weapons and the expectations about an escalation [of the military operations] in the south of Syria."

 

All but one agreed on rejoining the Syrian National Coalition and said the decision will be verified in a meeting of the general secretariat on Thursday. But a leading figure in the Coalition said that the decision must be verified by the General Commission at its next meeting in Cairo on 8 March.

 

In separate developments, some western countries are trying to reach a compromise between the former leader in the Free Syrian Army, Salim Idriss, and the Supreme Military Council after General Abdulilaah al-Bashir replaced Idriss, who was sacked. Informed sources said that there are efforts to re-assign Idriss, along with representatives from the Islamic Front, which includes the major Islamic factions, to coordinate between the political and military bodies of the opposition on one hand, and the southern and northern fronts on the other.

 

New organizations in the southern front announced their unity in anticipation of the arrival of new weapons and an expected confrontation in the south of Damascus, while nine military factions, including the Nusra Front and Ahrar al-Sham have launched a new battle, under a campaign to "hold firmly to the rope of Allah together and not become divided", in reference to a verse from Holy Quran. The groups issued a statement in which they said that "more than eight military locations and strategic military centers in the western countryside of Daraa have been targeted".

 

In the north of the country, an Ahrar al-Sham leader, known as Abu Khalid Assuri, was killed in a suicide bomb executed by ISIS in the Hulluk area of Aleppo, according to the Syrian Obervatory for Human Rights. Abu Khalid is famous among the jihadi movements for his battles in Iraq and Afghanistan. Jihadist websites describe him as a comrade of Ayman al-Zawahri, the current leader of al-Qaeda and his predecessor Osama Bin Laden.

 

Extremist Islamic websites said that Zawahri assigned Abu Khalid for a mission of reconciliation between the ISIS and the Nusra Front.

 

In Damascus, military jets continued raids on the city of Yabroud in the north of the capital, "while many of its inhabitants are fleeing the heavily bombarded city," the Observatory reported. 

 

Translated and edited by The Syrian Observer

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