Rebels said that one of Assad’s captured militants who were captured in the battle for Wadi Al-Daif army base admitted that they had lost nearly 400 out of the 800 militants who were stationed in the base located in southern rural Idlib. Another captured militant said that officers in the base used to delude the soldiers besieged in the base that rebels would slaughter them if they defect from the base. Videos posted on the internet showed captured militants urging their comrades in other regime positions to defect so as not to face the same fate of the soldiers who were killed in the battle of Wadi Al-Daif. A rebel commander confirmed that they had taken about 200 pro-Assad militants as prisoners, while the number of the killed is still unknown, but in the hundreds. As for the fate of the captured militants, he said that they would be brought to Sharia Court. A week ago, rebels cleansed Wadi Al-Daif and the nearby Al Hamidiya bases of all pro-Assad’s militants after four days of intense fighting, capturing dozens of soldiers along with tanks, armored vehicles and ammunition. “With the capture of the two bases, many areas in rural Idlib will be spared death and destruction that was previously wrought on them by Assad’s forces stationed in these two bases. Moreover, rebels cut off supply routes used by Assad’s forces in rural Idlib.” Activists said dozens of pro-Assad militants were captured while trying to escape in civilian clothes. Rebels tightened the noose on the two bases, besieged for more than two years, after taking control of all the checkpoints surrounding them. This rebels’ major victory over regime forces comes after many failed attempts to capture the bases over the last two years. (Source: Syrian Coalition)
