Rebels' first command HQ inside Syria boosts confidence

Syria's rebel movement has established a command headquarters inside the country for the first time, in a show of growing confidence in its overthrow of President Bashar al-Assad's regime.

Despite the threat of air attacks, rebels have, in past months, won and retained control of much of the countryside in the northern provinces of Aleppo and Idlib.

Moving their operations hub on to hard-won ground is part of an effort to create a Libya-style "safe area", where rebels can train, rearm and treat their wounded.

General Mustafa al-Sheikh, the head of the supreme military council of the Free Syrian Army (FSA), led the move to the new command centre in a house in the rolling hills of Idlib province.

Armed guards in military fatigues and bulletproof vests skulked among the surrounding olive trees as Gen Sheikh met more than 30 leaders of the province's rebel groups. Over sweet tea, the men discussed future military operations and ways further to unite the disparate fighting groups under the FSA umbrella.

In side rooms, men in civilian clothing, the FSA's logistical coordinators, pored over shopping lists of weapons. Wedges of $100 notes held together by an elastic bands quietly changed hands.

As fighting continues to escalate across the country, the rebel leadership remains optimistic that its forces are winning the war.

"We control most of the country. In most regions, the soldiers are prisoners of their barracks. They go out very little and we can move freely everywhere, except Damascus," said Colonel Ahmed Abdel Wahab, a rebel commander.

"With or without outside help, the fall of the regime is a question of months, not years," said Col Wahab, who claims to command a brigade of 850 men in the FSA.

The new HQ is also a political manoeuvre to unite the FSA as an entity. The FSA, until now largely made up of disparate groups, has been plagued by infighting and competition for resources.

Gen Sheikh and Col Riyadh al-Asaad, a frontman for the FSA who formally announced the creation of the headquarters in a YouTube video, will work together, uniting the loyalties of their groups.

"We will share everything; the funds, weapons, logistical resources and our operations," said Gen Sheikh.

FSA leaders hope that moving their operation room inside the country will also bolster their credibility.

Both Col Assad and Gen Sheikh, who had until recently been based in a high security camp for Syrian military defectors in Turkey, have been accused by rebel commanders in Syria of having little relevance on the ground.

Separately, Syrian regime aircraft hit insurgent bastions across the country yesterday (Sunday). On the ground at least 40 people were killed, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Troops pounded rebel-held areas in and around Damascus, in the second city Aleppo in the north, neighbouring Idlib, the central cities of Hama and Homs, and Dera'a in the south.

In Aleppo province, rebels destroyed two fighter planes on the ground in the area of Orm, a rebel commander claimed.