Tank ops in Qaboun

ON THE OFFENSE: An embedded crew working for the Russian Abkhazian Network News Agency documents tank operations by government troops in Qaboun Monday.

Local Coordination Committees and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights have reported intensified government attacks on the key city astride the international highway to the north of capital.

“A part of the street through Qaboun is cleared but the terrorists have intensified their attacks on passing vehicles on some of its sections because the time has come to put an end to this,” says the ANNA reporter.

ANNA has special access to government military operations as Abkhazians, known in the Middle East as Circassians are an ethnic minority that in Syria generally are aligned with the regime.

The Syrian Coalition in Istanbul called on the international community Monday to demand the establishment of humanitarian corridors for civilians to evacuate the area and denounced Assad’s forces for using residents in Qaboon as human shields.

A media activist from the nearby town of Saqba told Syria Direct Wednesday that civilians have been held hostage by government forces for several days inside a Qabon mosque. Video courtesy of ANNA channel