Army deserters fire rocket at tank as Syria revolt heats up

Syrian forces backed by tanks and helicopters stormed into the central town of Rastan yesterday to crush army deserters fighting back after months of mainly peaceful protests against president Bashar al-Assad.

Undeterred by the crackdown, more deserters declared the formation of another rebel military unit in the same area. In a sign of growing militancy in the campaign to oust Mr Assad, people in the nearby city of Homs said rebel soldiers had hit a government tank with a rocket.

Early on Tuesday, dozens of armoured vehicles entered Rastan, a town of 40,000 on the Orontes river north of Homs, after heavy machine-gun fire from tanks and helicopters pounded it.

“Tanks closed in on Rastan overnight and the sound of machine guns and explosions has been non-stop. They finally entered this morning,” said a resident who gave the name Abu Qassem.

Hundreds of soldiers who have refused to fire on protesters have formed the Khaled Bin al-Walid battalion, called after the Arab conqueror of Syria, in Rastan. The force, led by Captain Abdelrahman Sheikh, has some tanks. Colonel Riad al-Assad, the most senior military defector, is also active in the area.

In Houla, across the Orontes, thousands of villagers held an anti-Assad rally yesterday during which a new battalion of defectors was unveiled. Several soldiers in fatigues were seen in an opposition video as a crowd chanted “Freedom!”

To cheers, an announcer was seen in the video saying: “The Syrian Free Army declares the formation of the Ali bin Abi Taleb Battalion in Houla, Homs, under the command of First Lieutenant Colonel Fayez al-Abdallah, to be supervised by the Khaled bin al-Walid battalion … to protect peaceful protests.”

Rebel soldiers across the country have attacked army buses and roadblocks manned by troops and pro-Assad militiamen, known as “shabbiha”. Such attacks have escalated in recent days as security forces have tried to hunt down activists in the Rastan area. Local activists in Homs said rebel soldiers hit a tank yesterday with a rocket propelled grenade in the Bayada district, inhabited by desert tribes who are now among the main opponents of Mr Assad in a city of one million people.

The region around Homs and the adjoining province of Idlib on the border with Turkey have emerged as hotbeds of armed resistance. The bulk of the armed forces, led by officers from Mr Assad’s minority Alawite sect, have remained loyal, however. Soldiers risk being shot if they disobey orders.

A senior diplomat in Damascus said only the efforts of the Alawite officer corps had prevented mass desertions.

“The deserters so far are a hodge-podge,” the diplomat said. “They did not train together and whole divisions are not leaving because of the Alawite control.”

The United Nations says more than 2,700 Syrians, including 100 children, have been killed in a six-month-old revolt against 41 years of Assad family rule in a mostly Sunni nation of 20 million. The government blames the violence on terrorists and foreigners, who it says have killed 700 members of its forces.

The British ambassador in Damascus condemned the regime for its “violent suppression of mostly peaceful protests”.

“This is a regime that remains determined to control every significant aspect of political life in Syria. It is used to power. And it will do anything to keep it,” Simon Collis blogged. “The regime wants to create its own truth. We should not let it.”