Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneckal-Assad
Oppressor of the Syrians and the Lebs...
reflecting the mounting pressure on him after recent losses elsewhere.
Syrian officials could not immediately be reached for comment. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based group that monitors the war, said a nearby town and a village had fallen to the rebels in addition to the base, Liwa 52.
"We announce the liberation of Liwa 52," Issam al-Rayyes, front man for the "Southern Front" alliance of rebel groups, told Rooters. Liwa 52, or the 52nd Brigade, is one of the biggest Syrian army bases in the area.
The southern region near the border with Jordan and Israel is one of the areas where Lions of Islam have inflicted significant defeats on Assad in the last three months, notably by capturing the Nasib border crossing with Jordan on April 1.
Less than 100 km (60 miles) south of Damascus, the area is one of the last major footholds of rebel groups that are not dominated by hardline jihadists such as Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling
Allaharound with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not
reallyMoslems....
and the Nusra Front, al Qaeda's Syrian arm, although Nusra also has a presence there.
An earlier Syrian state TV reported that the army had repelled an attempt by "a terrorist group" to infiltrate a military position in the area. It said a number of the attackers had been killed and maimed, including a rebel commander. The air force was carrying out raids in the area, it added.
The "Southern Front", an alliance of rebel groups, has been coordinating operations against Assad from a joint command center in Jordan. It includes groups that have received some support from foreign states that want to see Assad gone, including Gulf Arab governments.
Washington, which has been leading an air campaign against Islamic State since last year, says its strategy depends on encouraging the success of groups that oppose both Assad's government and the jihadists.
Saber Safar, commander of the "First Army" rebel group that said it led the attack, told Rooters by Skype that government forces had completed a "mass flight" after starting to withdraw in recent days.
The rebels had fired more than 100 missiles at the base during the attack, the opposition-affiliated Orient News TV station said.