No refuge for rebels as troops push into villages

Damascus: In early March, government forces began pouring into the restive Idlib province, where rebels had found refuge in the mountainous Jabal Al Zawiyeh region, a cluster of small, difficult-to-reach villages southwest of the provincial capital.

Ole Solvang, a Human Rights Watch researcher said the regime appeared to begin using human shields here in response to the rebels use of roadside bombs.

As the Syrian government forces advanced into their villages, residents said villagers were forced to march in front of the advancing armour columns.

Two Syrian refugees from the village of Janudieh said that when Syrian tanks entered their village on March 11, the troops smashed up local shops and the village pharmacy. Groups of local villagers, mostly women and children since the men had mostly fled to avoid arrest, marched alongside tanks, they said.

"I saw them forcing women and children to walk in front of the advancing tanks," said one of the two refugees, who was a high school teacher in the village. He declined to give his name out of fear of his safety, like most of the individuals interviewed for this article. His 21-year-old friend, a private who defected from the Syrian Army who gave his name as Nour, said he, too, witnessed the incident.

— Christian Science Monitor