Rebels capture major weapons depots east Homs

Syrian mainstream and Islamist rebels pressed an advance Monday against Bashar al-Assad troops in Homs province after controlling the major weapons depots near Mahin village,  senior officer in rebels' commandos Units (Maghawir) told Zaman Alwasl.

 Over two weeks since the fierce clashes have started between the Free Syria Army fighters backed with Islamists jihadis from Jabaht al-Nusra with Assad's troops east Homs in villages of Sadad a Christian town near Mahin, and Hawarin where rebels had seized a gas well located outside Sadad.

On October 22, opposition fighters entered Sadad, aiming to advance through it towards Mahin and the depots, reports came later said that Assad army backed by militiamen from the Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah forced the rebels to withdraw from parts of Sadad.

Meanwhile the reports said that the next front in the war is expected to center on the mountainous Qalamoun area, roughly 50 km (30 miles) north of Damascus, less than 10 km (6 miles) from the Lebanese border.

One of Syria's most heavily militarized districts, Qalamoun is vital to Assad's control of the route from Damascus to the Latakia  

More than 120,000 people have been killed so far in the war, now in its third year, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which closely monitors the war through a network of activists in the country. The UN said in July that 100,000 Syrians have been killed, and has not updated that figure since. Millions of Syrians have fled their homes because of the fighting.