DAMASCUS: The head of Syria’s air defenses has been killed in fighting near Damascus, government officials say.
AFP story
General Hussein Isaac died of wounds suffered in fighting at Mleiha, a key battleground southeast of the capital, making him one of the few top-ranking officers whose deaths have been announced during Syria’s three-year war.
The air defence forces’ headquarters is located in Mleiha, a key flashpoint in fighting around the capital.
The air force has also been deployed in the regime’s war against rebels seeking to overthrow President Bashar al-Assad, whose regime brands the uprising a foreign-backed “terrorist” plot.
For more than a month, the army backed by Lebanon’s Shiite Hezbollah has been battling to recapture Mleiha, a strategic rebel bastion under army siege and almost constant bombardment.
While the army is in firm control of Damascus, rebels hold a number of towns and villages on the outskirts, despite a suffocating blockade and frequent air strikes and shelling.
Syria’s war began in March 2011 with protests demanding political change, before morphing into a bloody insurgency after Assad’s regime unleashed a massive crackdown.
Despite the war, the regime is to stage a presidential election next month in the areas under its control.
Photo: File
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