AP, Beirut, 13 Feb 2012 — Syrian rebels repelled a push Monday by government tanks into a key central town held by forces fighting President Bashar Assad‘s regime as the country’s 11-month-old uprising looked increasingly like a nascent civil war.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the attempt by regime forces to storm Rastan in the restive central province of Homs left at least three soldiers dead. Rastan has been held by the rebels since late January.
The town was taken by defectors twice in the past only to be retaken by Syrian troops. It is the hometown of former Defense Minister Mustapha Tlass, who held the post for more than three decades, mostly under Mr. Assad‘s father and predecessor, the late Hafez Assad.
Calls to the town’s residents could not get through on Monday, and the telephone lines appeared to be cut, as they usually are during military operations.
“Troops maneuvered by moving on the northern edge of town then other forces attacked form the south,” said Rami Abdul-Rahman, who heads the Observatory. He added that hundreds of army defectors are in Rastan.