| The Economist | - |
A VIDEO aired on May 12th shows the 13th Brigade, a rebel group in northern Syria, destroying a government tank with an armour-piercing missile known as a TOW.
Syria’s civil war
Business as usual, bloody as ever
What can America do now, as Bashar Assad looks set to stay in power?
They have helped to stem recent advances by government forces into parts of two northern provinces, Aleppo and Idleb. On May 8th rebels tunnelled under and blew up Aleppo’s Carlton Hotel, a base for President Bashar Assad’s troops; they have cut nearby government supply routes. The rebels have also gained ground in the south, on the Hauran plain close to Jordan.
Yet TOWs alone will not stop the balance of power tilting in favour of Mr Assad, who is campaigning for re-election next month. On May 8th the last 900-odd fighters were escorted across rebel lines out of Homs under a deal brokered by Iran and overseen by the UN, ending a two-year siege that has left swathes of Syria’s third-largest city in ruins. And though the extremist rebel group, the Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS), has been forced back to the east of the country as a result of discord with other rebel groups, it has been at the expense of the regime recapturing parts of Aleppo taken by the rebels two years ago.
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