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Syrian defectors from the army, gathered in a group called The Free Syrian Army, o Wednesday reported an attack against a military base near Damascus, the first such action in the restive country which has been confronted with a violent uprising for the last eight months. The group announced it also hit a Syrian intelligence facility. The main attack, carried out on Wednesday morning, targeted a compound run by Air Force Intelligence. The Free Syrian Army also targeted checkpoints at the suburbs of the capital of Syria, pointing to the fact that the Arab country is slowly descending into civil war.
On Monday, one of the bloodiest days in Syria since the rebellion started, 34 soldiers were killed in clashes with the defectors’ army in Daraa province, showing that the conflict is turning to a military level and that the security forces of the regime are going to find resistance from now on.
The attack on the capital’s military base could not be confirmed independently by the international media because of the media blackout instituted by the regime in Damascus, and the Syrian Free Army did not release too many details regarding the attacks.
A Syrian opposition figure told the Associated Press that the attack on the base located in Harasta, a suburb of the capital, was carried out by three groups of defectors who used automatic weapons and grenade propellers and were careful not to damage the administrative building, where detainees were being held.
The eyewitness said that while ambulances were hurrying to the area, all the defector troops returned to their point of departure safe and sound.
In the province of Hama, Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reports, four people were killed, three of them members of the defectors’ army, as they were ambushed by the presidential loyalists on Wednesday morning.
Local Coordination Committees report that two people were killed in the province of Idlib, and one in the suburbs of Damascus.
The surge of violence on both sides entrenched in the Syrian conflict comes a few days after the Arab League took the lead in the Syrian case and suspended the country from the organization, announcing all sorts of sanctions that should convince the president to step down.
In Cairo on Saturday, 18 out of 22 members of the Arab League decided that the regime of Bashar al-Assad must go, and that the country’s leadership cannot be recognized as a partner for the other states in the region.
The Qatari prime minister, who led this case, announced that though Syria is suspended from the Arab League this does not mean that it would become target to a military intervention against it.
The Qatari PM was clear that no-fly zone would be installed over Syria, and no ground troop will be deployed. He felt compelled to specify this, so that Syria’s suspension not be associated with the suspension of Libya, which included a consent of the Arab League for the NATO air forces to bomb Qaddafi’s positions.
The Arab countries were however advised to pull out their ambassadors from Syria and to apply economic sanctions to the restive country. The Arab League is expected to convene in Morocco on Wednesday to uphold the decision made on Saturday, and by the way the situation progresses in Syria, the decision to expel it will be upheld.
The Arab League came to this decision as a result of an ultimatum it gave the regime three weeks ago, when they proposed Assad to end violence and engage in talks with the opposition.
Assad was expected to come to Cairo in two weeks and sit at the negotiation table with the opposition. The leaders of the opposition expressed that it was too late for this kind of talks and that the only discussion with Assad’s regime was the release of power and assuring of a peaceful transition.
Assad had agreed to end violence, and to implement reforms, which he failed to do, and that drew the reaction of the Arab League members, especially since reports indicated that more than 200 people were killed in the streets of Syria since they delivered him the ultimatum.
The first public position of an Arab leader after the decision last Saturday was that of the Jordanian King Abdullah II. The king said on Tuesday that if he were in the position of the Syrian president, he would leave the power and would make sure that the transition is being assured.
The words of the king triggered a violent protest in front of the Jordanian embassy in Damascus, and compelled the authorities in Amman to explain that the king was speaking hypothetically, he did not actually demanded Assad to resign.
The same thing cannot be said by the Turkish PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whose words were blunt and beyond interpretation. Erdogan advised Assad to resign and avoid going down in history as a leader that is “feeding on blood,” adding that those who spill the blood of their country fellows never end well.
The regime in Ankara went further than the expression of mere words, by halting a deal with a Syrian oil company, thus applying the first economic sanction against Syria. The move was praised by the White House, which congratulated Turkey for its strong stance.
Erdogan’s comments came after the attack on Turkish consulate in Allepo on Saturday night, following the announce of the Arab League. The attackers expressed their anger at the decision of Turkey to support the decision of the Arab League.
Russia is said to be the only country that has not demanded Assad to step down yet. A leader of the Syrian opposition visited Moscow on Tuesday but it is said that he failed to convince the Russians to change their stance.
In the meantime, Syria was reported to have released some 1,000 prisoners from the security facilities as part of the deal with the Arab League. The prisoners are “without blood on their hands,” that is without a direct implication in the conflict. The regime qualified the decision made by the Arab League as “dangerous” and “shameful.”

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