The end nears.
Death in the orchards: the crumbling of the Syrian regime
Hundreds of Syrian troops and allied fighters have been mown down in painful defeats in the last week, as regime falters
Syrian rebel leaders have described massacres of hundreds Assad troops and fighters in grim detail as the regime’s defences begin to crumble in the face of revived attacks on several fronts.
President Bashar al-Assad had promised to rescue hundreds of his men who were surrounded in a last stand at a hospital in the key north-western town of Jisr al-Shughour.
Eventually, the men tried to run for it under the cover of a regime aerial attack, pre-empting a final assault by rebels including Jabhat al-Nusra, the Syrian branch of al-Qaeda, and other Islamist groups.
Instead, many of the soldiers were shot down as they were cornered in orchards on the edge of town, a rebel spokesman said.
“They headed for the surrounding orchards,” the spokesman told Syria Direct, a specialist website. He said the rebels had dug a tunnel under the hospital, planning to blow it up, but opted instead to storm the building as air raids began.
The soldiers then tried to make a break for it, trying to reach regime lines.
“The majority were either captured or killed, because the armed opposition was monitoring and surrounding the area well,” the spokesman, Ali al-Hafawi, said. He said they counted 208 bodies, among them high-ranking officers.
