BEIRUT — A border region with a history of hostility toward the Syrian regime is posing the biggest challenge yet for President Bashar Assad’s struggle to crush the revolt against his family’s 40-year- rule.
Analysts say Assad will do anything to restore control in the restive northern area bordering Turkey, where mutinous forces are giving a largely peaceful revolt new strength and firepower.
On Saturday, thousands of elite troops and tanks thought to be led by Assad’s brother sealed off the entrances to the mostly deserted town of Jisr al-Shughour, with soldiers loyal to the regime coming under sniper fire as they approached.
As many as 2,000 mutinous Syrian soldiers and police officers remained behind to fight against an expected all-out government assault, a resident said, and unarmed demonstrators were ready to fight “with their hands” in the town just 12 miles from the Turkish border.
While the Syrian uprising is still far from an all-out Libya-style insurgency, the mutiny in Jisr al-Shughour raises concerns that the 12-week revolt is taking on a new dimension. Jisr al-Shughour’s history of Sunni militancy and its proximity to Turkey make it a crucial proving ground for the regime.
Syrian troops backed by tanks, helicopters and heavy armor have been in the area for several days. It was not clear why the army was delaying an assault.
Ausama Monajed, a London-based Syrian activist, said the Assads could be worried about not just army defections but any hesitation to obey shoot-on-sight orders. Human- rights groups say more than 1,400 people nationwide have died in the government crackdown since the uprising erupted in southern Syria in mid-March.
“The Assads are reshuffling the army and creating a number of . . . units made up specifically of people who have been tested and have shown themselves to be hard-core loyalists,” he said. “It is these units that have been sent to Jisr al-Shughour.”
Jisr al-Shughour is a predominantly Sunni town with some Alawite and Christian villages nearby in Idlib province. Most Syrians are Sunni Muslim.
Assad and the ruling elite belong to the minority Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam.
Jamil Saeb, an activist from the town who was reached by phone, suggested the army was afraid to take on the people who stayed behind because Jisr al-Shughour residents were “known to be exceptionally fierce.”
He said several army deserters and officers were still there and have vowed to protect unarmed residents.
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