BEIRUT SYRIAN government forces have seized control of a longcontested neighbourhood in the central city of Homs that is considered a symbol of opposition to President Bashar al Assad’s regime, anti-regime activist said on Tuesday.
The recapture of Baba Amr came as Syrian opposition representatives took the country’s seat for the first time at an Arab League summit, a significant diplomatic boost for the rebel forces.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that government forces pushed rebels from Baba Amr after two weeks of clashes, shelling and airstrikes that destroyed many homes.
The Syrian state news agency SANA said on Monday that government forces had “restored security and stability” to the neighborhood.
Baba Amr, a poor neighborhood in southwest Homs, emerged early in the uprising as a symbol of the rebel movement, first for its protests and later for the armed groups who held it against regime troops.
While not strategically important in the two-year civil war, the loss of Baba Amr is a symbolic blow to the rebels.
The government seized the neighborhood in March of last year after months of daily shelling that damaged much of the area and killed hundreds, including two foreign journalists who had sneaked into the area to report on the siege.
It has changed hands a number of times since, with rebels saying early this month that they had taken advantage of a regime security lapse to take it back and set up checkpoints.
The regime has ample heavy weapons and a fleet of fighter jets but a shortage of ground troops, meaning it often abandons areas to rebel forces then pounds them with artillery and airstrikes from afar, sometimes forcing rebel retreats.
It also frequently claims to have “secured” areas only to report months later that it “secured” them again, with little explanation of how rebels got back in.
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