“Rebels seized a strategic air base in northern Syria today after months of fighting, activists and insurgents said, further weakening President Bashar al-Assad’s grip on the region. Rebels had fought for the base used by military helicopters in Idlib province for months, but it only fell after Islamist units reinforced them earlier this month. The Syrian military struck back hours after fighters captured the base, launching air strikes on the area, the pro-opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said………….”
Regime forces most likely had abandoned that base long before it was seized. Still, it shows that regime control is shrinking, at least in terms of territory if not in terms of ability to inflict death and destruction and misery. Now all the rebels need are a few warplanes or helicopters of their own and some pilots. During the Spanish Civil War (1936-39), German Luftwaffe pilots used to ‘volunteer’ for service on the Fascist Falangista side and they brought their bombers and fighters along (the Nazi warplanes also volunteered along with their fliers). Maybe some Qatari or
Saudi pilots will volunteer for duty in Syria and bring along their F-15s.
Maybe that defected Tlass kid, Manaf, will get a haircut and start a nucleus rebel air force. Right now his hairstyle reminds me of some of the Grunge bands in Seattle rather than a putative military leader of a bunch of grizzly fundamentalist freedom fighters, kidnappers, and assorted cutthroats.
Cheers
mhg