BEIRUT (AP) — The leaders of the rebel Free Syrian Army said yesterday they moved their command center from Turkey to Syria with the aim of uniting rebels and speeding up the fall of President Bashar Assad’s regime.
Brig. Gen. Mustafa al-Sheikh, who heads the FSA’s Military Council, told The Associated Press that the group made the move last week. He would not say where the new headquarters is located or give other details.
The FSA is the most prominent of the rebel groups trying to topple Assad, though its authority over networks of fighters in Syria is limited. Its commanders have been criticized for being based in Turkey while thousands are killed inside Syria.
Despite the announcement of the command move, rebels still have to rely on Turkey as a rear base for supplies and reinforcements. In the past few months, rebels have captured wide swaths of Syrian territory bordering Turkey, along with three border crossings, allowing them to ferry supplies and people into Syria.
FSA commander Col. Riad al-Asaad announced the move of the command center in a video with the title “Free Syrian Army Communique Number 1 from Inside.” Wearing a military uniform and surrounded by a dozen gunmen, the commander said the aim is to “start the plan to liberate Damascus soon, God willing.”
Al-Sheikh, the other top FSA commander, said moving the command “will speed up the fall of the regime because it will give a big boost to the morale of rebels and there will be a command to follow-up on operations.”
“There are liberated areas now and it’s better for the command to be with the rebels instead of being abroad,” al-Sheikh said in a phone interview from Turkey. The general said he has been going back and forth to Syria.
In recent months, rebels have succeeded in taking the fight to Damascus, but the regime has reasserted control in many areas. In the summer, rebels also launched an offensive on Syria’s largest city, Aleppo, and are holding several neighborhoods there, despite daily battles with regime forces.
Activists say nearly 30,000 people have been killed since Syria’s crisis began in March 2011. The uprising began with largely peaceful protests against Assad’s regime, but has since morphed into a civil war in the face of a brutal government crackdown.
The Syrian conflict has increasingly spilled into neighboring Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon, with several hundred thousand Syrians seeking refuge there and battles occasionally being fought along Syria’s borders.
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