Syrian Rebels Attack Damascus Military Base, Form Council
Syrian opposition activists say army defectors have attacked a government base near the capital, Damascus, and formed a rebel council in an escalation of an eight-month uprising against the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
The activists say rebels of the Free Syrian Army fired rockets and machine guns at an air force intelligence complex in the Damascus suburb of Harasta early Wednesday. There was no independent confirmation of the rebel attack or information about casualties.
A Germany-based spokesman for Syria's Local Coordination Committees says the Free Syrian Army has established a temporary military council whose goal is to weaken the Syrian security forces. Hozan Ibrahim says the Syrian rebels announced the formation of the council in a statement released late Tuesday. The Free Syrian Army previously had no announced central command.
A group of men claiming to be Syrian army defectors also released a video statement Wednesday declaring their desertion from the pro-Assad military.
Syrian army defectors have engaged in increasingly deadly battles with government forces in the past week. But those confrontations had been concentrated outside the capital, including the northwestern region of Idlib, the central region of Homs and southern region of Daraa...........
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