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Syrian Rebels Claim Capture Of Northern City

March 05, 2013

Syrian rebels are reported to have seized a city in the northeast of the country.

Video showed crowds pulling down a statue of the late father of President Bashar al-Assad in Raqqa, which is located on the Euphrates River.

The rebels do not claim to hold any other provincial capitals.

Rebel fighters say forces loyal to Assad still control the provincial airport some 60 kilometers from Raqqa.

Activists from the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights later reported that rebels had captured Raqqa's governor, Hassan Jalili, after clashes overnight near the governor's residence. A short amateur video distributed by the Britain-based group showed Jalili and Suleiman Suleiman, the ruling Baath party's secretary-general for the province, seated among rebels.

Jalili represents the highest-ranking Assad-regime official to be captured by rebels.

Meanwhile, the civil war has spilled into neighboring Iraq, where officials reported that gunmen had killed at least 40 Syrian soldiers and government employees as they headed home after fleeing a Syrian rebel advance last week.

At the United Nations, Israel warned that it could not "stand idle" as the Syrian conflict spilled over borders.

Israel's UN ambassador complained to the 15-member Security Council about shells from Syria landing in Israel.

Russian UN Ambassador Vitaly Churkin, president of the Security Council for March, said the security situation between Syria and Israel was also being threatened by "a very new and dangerous phenomenon" of armed groups operating in a so-called area of separation in the Golan Heights between the countries.

Based on reporting by AP and Reuters

Source: http://www.rferl.org/content/syria-/24919296.html

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Syrian Rebels Claim Capture Of Northern City