Syrian army crushes key rebel stronghold in Homs

 

Syrian government troops have won control of a central district of Homs, crushing one of the last rebel bastions of the city once dubbed “the capital of the revolution”, activists and state media reported on Monday. 

After besieging the district of Khalidiya for more than two years, its capture is a symbolic and strategic coup for the regime, raising the morale of its weary soldiers and pushing the insurgency from its most important stronghold in central Syria.

In a victorious broadcast Syrian state television announced the “collapse of the terrorists’ citadel” of Khaldiyeh, claiming that the army had “restored security and stability across the neighbourhood”. 

On Monday, the Skype accounts of more than a dozen activists who had spent two years living under siege in the area, always plugged into a satellite Internet connection to send news of government attacks to the outside world, were ominously offline.

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