Air Raids Increase as Battle for Strategic Areas Intensifies in Syria, Rebels Say

Source: NYT

Syrian activists claimed on Wednesday that the government was increasingly resorting to air power to shore up beleaguered army units battling rebel fighters for strategic territories in the north.

Government forces unleashed a string of air raids across the north of the country, as well as in the suburbs of Damascus, the Syrian capital, the activists said.

In Idlib Province, in northern Syria, the air offensive intensified against the key crossroads of Maarat al-Noaman, which the rebels captured in early October. Located in the middle of the supply route between Syria’s two biggest cities, Damascus and Aleppo, Maarat al-Noaman is indispensable to the Syrian government.

As the two sides wrestle to control it, activists warned that a humanitarian crisis was looming. “Most residents of this area have been displaced,” said Ahmad Kadour, a spokesman for the rebels in the area. “It’s very cold, there is no heating and the most essential nutritional supplies have completely stopped. We can’t even get bread.”

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/01/world/middleeast/syrian-air-raids-increase-as-battle-for-strategic-areas-intensifies-rebels-say.html