Tanks pounded a Syrian town that has become a refuge for army deserters for a second day on Wednesday, residents said, in the first major battle with defecting soldiers since a six-month-old revolt against President Bashar al-Assad began. At least 1,000 deserters and armed villagers have been fighting tank- and helicopter-backed forces trying to regain control of Rastan, a town of 40,000, in central Syria.
"They have got a foothold in the southern part of Rastan, but the Free Syrian Army is fighting back and has destroyed three armoured vehicles," one resident said by satellite phone. Syrian authorities have not commented on the assault, but in the past have denied any army defections, blaming "foreign meddling" for the turmoil in the country of 20 million.
It was impossible to verify which side has the military upper hand in Rastan - Syria has barred most international media from the country - but one Western diplomat said it was "highly possible" that defectors were holding their ground. After months of mostly peaceful anti-Assad protests, army deserters unwilling to shoot at demonstrators have formed themselves into rebel units, of uncertain size, mostly in Syria's agricultural heartland around the city of Homs.
The area is a recruiting ground for Sunni conscripts who provide most of the manpower in the military, which is dominated by officers from Assad's minority Alawite sect, and in better- equipped core units commanded by his younger brother Maher. Homs and its environs have seen some of the biggest street protests against Assad, as well as some of the heaviest assaults in a crackdown that has killed 2,700 people, by a United Nations count.
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