MAALOULA, Syria - Syrian troops triumphantly swept through some of the last remaining opposition strongholds north of Damascus, including a much coveted ancient Christian hamlet, sending rebel fighters fleeing to nearby hills amid an ever-tightening noose.
The near total collapse of rebels along a key supply route that has long funneled weapons to opposition-held districts around Damascus helps strengthen President Bashar Assad’s hand in and around the capital before presidential elections, during which he intends to run for a third term.
The dramatic capture of Sarkha, Maaloula and Jibbeh was the fastest series of army successes against rebels in the Qalamoun region since the government launched an offensive in November in the strategic area, a wedge of mountainous territory between the capital and the Lebanese border.
In Maaloula, a historic and scenic Christian enclave set into the rocky hills that has changed hands several times in the war, Syrian soldiers jubilantly hoisted the Syrian flag atop the shattered facade of a landmark hotel where rebels had been holed up for months.
In a sign of the persistent dangers, three members of a television crew working with the Hezbollah-owned Al-Manar TV were killed when their car came under a hail of bullets in the town.
Al-Manar identified the three as reporter Hamza al-Haj Hassan, technician Halim Allaw and cameraman Mohammed Mantash. Two of their colleagues were also wounded, it said.
The Lebanese Shiite militant group Hezbollah is a staunch ally of Assad, despised by the overwhelmingly Sunni rebels fighting to topple him. Hezbollah fighters have traveled to Syria and have been instrumental in helping Syrian troops secure areas around the capital.
Rebels still hold a few towns and other pockets in Qalamoun. Control of the region means control over the flow of weapons and fighters to Ghouta, a sprawling opposition area east of Damascus from which rebels have been firing mortar shells into the capital. It is also important because of a highway that links Damascus to the Mediterranean port of Latakia and the coast.
“It’s an extremely important region for the security of Damascus,” said Hisham Jaber, a retired Lebanese army general who closely follows the Syrian conflict.
“The army will do anything to keep the roads from Damascus to Beirut for themselves, after losing many crossings with Turkey,” Jaber said.
Syrian rebels launched an offensive in Latakia province last month, partly in response to the losses in Qalamoun, capturing the last border crossing point with Turkey that was still under government control as well as several towns. Although the army has been unable to reverse the rebels’ gains in Latakia, it has managed to stall any further rebel advances.
A Syrian military statement issued Monday said the successive victories by the Syrian army were in line with the Syrian government’s “determination to win the war against takfiris,” a term for Islamic extremists.
Syria’s state news agency said forces loyal to Assad captured Sarkha early Monday before also sweeping rebels out of Maaloula. Hours later, troops seized the nearby town of Jibbeh.
By Monday afternoon, only the towns of Asal al-Ward, Hawsh Arab and Jbaadin remained in rebel hands, said a commander who spoke to an Associated Press reporter on a government-led tour of the area.
He spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.
After lengthy delays in loading its chemical weapons for destruction abroad, Syria has completed delivery of another shipment that raises the total to almost two-thirds of its arsenal, the international watchdog overseeing the process reported Monday.
The delivery of chemical agents to the port of Latakia, completed Sunday, was the second in three days. It raised the share of Syrian chemical agents handed over for destruction to slightly more than 65 percent, the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons said in a statement from its headquarters in The Hague. The country has now delivered a bit more than 57 percent of its most dangerous, so-called priority one chemicals, and 82 percent of less toxic, priority two chemicals, said Michael Luhan, a spokesman for the organization.
Information for this article was contributed by Barbara Surk, Zeina Karam and Diaa Hadid of The Associated Press and by Nick Cumming-Bruce of The New York Times.
Front Section, Pages 10 on 04/15/2014