Hadi al-Abdullah blasts Coalition as being ‘on another planet’

THANKS FOR NOTHING: Prominent citizen journalist Hadi al-Abdullah told Emirati satellite channel al-Ghad al-Arabi on Tuesday that rebels are struggling to cope with a shortage of effective weaponry as heavy fighting continues on Yabroud’s outskirts.

“There’s a deep sense of anger here,” al-Abdallah went on. “We are tired of talking at [the Coalition]. It’s like we’re on two different planets.”

The Syrian National Coalition “has not provided so much as a single lira for the revolutionaries or the people of Qalamoun,” al-Abdullah said from inside the rebel-held town of Yabroud in Syria’s Qalamoun mountain range. One of Syria’s most well-known activists, al-Abdullah blamed the lack of resources on Syria’s opposition-in-exile, saying that “we tried to talk with them, but they wouldn’t take our calls.”

Al-Abdullah said the Coalition wouldn’t meet with Syria-based activists: “One of our brothers left Yabroud and traveled to Turkey to meet with them, but the Coalition members refused the meeting.”

Al-Abdullah’s remarks come one month into a concentrated regime and Hezbollah assault on Yabroud, the last rebel stronghold in the Qalamoun mountain range, which runs along Syria’s western border with Lebanon and contains a strategically vital stretch of the highway connecting the Syrian capital with Homs.

The pro-opposition Qalamoun Media Center reported Wednesday that rebels had pushed back regime fighters around the Rima farms area to Yabroud’s northeast. The opposition reporting comes one day after pro-Assad Syrian daily al-Watan claimed that the Syrian army had “extended full control over Rima,” which sits between Yabroud and the highway and has been a key flashpoint in the battle for Yabroud.

-March 12, 2014

Video courtesy of Mustafa al-Naimi.

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