{"id":121315,"date":"2015-09-09T15:23:40","date_gmt":"2015-09-09T15:23:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=121315"},"modified":"2015-09-11T07:24:10","modified_gmt":"2015-09-11T07:24:10","slug":"syrian-air-base-falls-to-rebels-troops-exit-state-tv","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=121315","title":{"rendered":"Syrian air base falls to rebels, troops exit &#8211; state TV"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1 style=\"text-align: center;\">Reuters &#8212; Sept 9, 2015<\/h1>\n<div id=\"attachment_121317\" style=\"width: 410px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/screen_shot_2015_09_09_at_9.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-121317\" class=\"size-full wp-image-121317\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/screen_shot_2015_09_09_at_9.jpg\" alt=\"Screen shot of fighters purportedly belonging to Al Nusrah on top of an abandoned MIG at the airbase\" width=\"400\" height=\"242\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/screen_shot_2015_09_09_at_9.jpg 400w, https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/screen_shot_2015_09_09_at_9-300x182.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-121317\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Screen shot of fighters purportedly belonging to Al Nusrah on top of an abandoned MIG at the airbase<\/p><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">Syrian troops have pulled out of a major air base in northwestern Syria, state television said on Wednesday, after a two-year siege by Islamist-led insurgents, increasing pressure on government-held coastal areas north of the capital.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">A group monitoring the war said the Syrian military had been completely driven out of the northwestern province of Idlib after the fall of the base.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">Rebel sources said al Qaeda&#8217;s Nusra Front had played a leading role in the capture of the airport. Nusra is part of a coalition of Islamist groups called the Army of Conquest which has seized most of the surrounding Idlib province.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">In a newsflash, Syrian state television said the army garrison that had defended the Abu al-Duhur military airport had evacuated the post.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">The airport, which was one of the last remaining military strongholds in Idlib province, has been under siege for almost two years by rebels. Another major base east of Aleppo, Kweiris, is currently besieged by ultra hardline Islamic State militants.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">Nusra Front has made gains in northwestern Syria alongside other insurgent groups since May, seizing the city of Idlib, the town of Jisr al-Shughour and bringing them closer to government-held coastal areas north of the capital.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">Rami Abdulrahman of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said members of a local pro-government militia remained in two Shi&#8217;ite villages in Idlib province but the army itself had withdrawn from the province.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">Syria accuses Turkey of financing and aiding rebels seeking to topple the government. Damascus says foreign jihadi fighters allowed into Syrian territory by Turkey have played a pivotal role in rebel gains in that area.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">(Reporting by Suleiman Al-Khalidi; Editing by Ralph Boulton)<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/uk.reuters.com\/article\/2015\/09\/09\/uk-mideast-crisis-syria-base-idUKKCN0R90QL20150909\">Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Rebel sources said al Qaeda&#8217;s Nusra Front played a leading role in capturing the base. While Syria has accused Turkey of aiding the militants<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39262,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[83],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-121315","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-syria"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121315","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/39262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=121315"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121315\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":121318,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121315\/revisions\/121318"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=121315"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=121315"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=121315"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}