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https://twitter.com/ZainSyr/status/274169034872868864/photo/1
Western Damascus burns - this photo reportedly take at around sunset on Thursday.
Syria Live Coverage: Insurgents Take More Bases as Damascus Hit by Bombs
Why has the regime cut the internet? For a possible answer, one has to understand the duality of the insurgency.
The insurgency has many dimensions, but --- to oversimplify it --- two are notable. The first is what we see in Deir Ez Zor or Aleppo or Idlib Province --- a semi-functional military apparatus, either coordinated at the brigade level or on a larger scale. These units seek military victories, destroying the regime's resources and capturing bases, equipment, and territory. This element to the Free Syrian Army has been building for many months, and has not lost a battle since September. It has been advancing steadily since June; however, in recent weeks, this force has surged in a series of one-sided victories from Damascus to Aleppo, from al Raqqah to Deir ez Zor, and beyond.
But in Damascus in particular there has been a second dimension: while there is no place for a traditional military to hide, insurgents have been eating away at the Assad regime for months. Despite efforts to put them down, opposition fighters have been able to hit regime targets and then melt away into the civilian population operating very much like insurgents in Iraq or South Vietnam.
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