Syrian Army Targets Rebels in the City of Homs
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JOSEPH EID/AFP/Getty Images(DAMASCUS, Syria) — The Syrian army launched an offensive Saturday in the central city of Homs, an effort that resulted in government forces gaining control of a large portion of the Khalidiya neighborhood, one of the few remaining districts in the city under rebel control, according to media reports and activists quoted by the BBC.
Homs is a strategically important city that links the capital Damascus to the coast.
The pan-Arab television station al-Mayadeen reported that 80 percent of Khalidiya was now under the control of government forces.
The BBC quoted activists as saying that only the old city of Homs and a few other districts remained under rebel control. The activists accused Lebanese Hezbollah fighters of taking part in the offensive.
Rebels had held the Khalidiya neighborhood for more than a year.
The capture reflects a series of recent gains by forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
The United Nations confirmed last Thursday that the death toll from the 28-month-long civil war in Syria has exceeded 100,000.
A peace conference on Syria is tentatively scheduled for September, although there are still no indications that it might actually come to pass. It has been delayed by differences between international powers — particularly Russia and the U.S. — and doubts about whether both sides in the conflict would attend.
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