Rebels' concerns mounting after fall of strategic town near Aleppo

 Rebels' concerns have dramatically mounted amid fears of imminent siege for their areas in Aleppo after the fall of Safira town by the Assad army, according to Zaman Alwasl sources.

The town of Safira lies on a road the army said would be used to send in medicine and supplies to government-controlled areas of Aleppo, mired in a bloody stalemate for over a year. It is also the site of a chemical weapons installation under government control and cleared of equipment.

The capture of Safira is significant in that it marks a rare victory for Assad's forces near the mostly rebel-held north. Opposition groups confirmed the army's seizure of the city, southeast of Aleppo.

"Our heroic armed forces gained full control over the town of Safira after a series of strategic operations... The importance of this new success for our armed forces is due to its strategic importance at the eastern gates of Aleppo," a spokesman for the Syrian army said in a televised statement, Reuters reported.

Rebel groups have become increasingly fractured, with Islamic extremists, including those linked to al-Qaida, analyst Ahmed Khlaif, based in Qameshli said to Zaman Alwasl, ''The rebel war-within pushed the armed opposition to lose Sfira and perhaps more areas, as they lost before Khanaser town, Sfira neighbor, with its strategic road for supplies and ammunition.''  

The conflict in Syria, now more than 2-1/2-years old, has long been in stalemate but Assad's forces have been making slow advances in the center of the country and near the capital since they captured a strategic border town near Lebanon with the help of the Lebanese Shi'ite militant group Hezbollah.

The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the government had seized the town on Friday morning after more than three weeks of fighting.

The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), which has teams in Syria to eliminate the country's chemical weapons arsenal, has said its teams were unable to reach two sites for inspection because they were too dangerous.

A source briefed on their operations said one of those sites was at Safira.

The chemical weapons site itself has been under government control but emptied of equipment because of fighting nearby, according to the OPCW.

Further south, fighting took place in and around the capital Damascus where the government has launched an offensive in recent months to retake rebel-held suburbs.

The Observatory said the rural town of Sbeneh, 6 km (4 miles) south of Damascus, faced shelling and clashes between rebels and government forces supported by pro-Assad militias, Hezbollah fighters and other foreign fighters.

The attack is part of government attempt to retake rural towns outside Damascus by heavy shelling from afar in conjunction with a slow but creeping blockade that has prevented food or supplies from entering the area.

Rebel-held districts on the edge of the capital, some under siege for nearly a year, have been at the forefront of the uprising against Assad, whose family has ruled Syria for four decades.