The Economist: Village Victory by Syria and its Rebels

The hardscrabble little town of Azaz, 25 miles north of Aleppo witnessed an epic battle in the 12th century AD, which pitted the Crusaders against the Muslim Seljuk Turks. On that occasion the Christians won. Now, nine centuries on, another battle, pitting the rebels of the Free Syrian Army against Syrian government forces, has ravaged Azaz for the past month, but on July 22nd the rebels, most of them Sunni Muslims, drove out President Bashar Assad's men in a fight that left 40 FSA fighters and 60 odd civilians dead, and the town in ruins. A white mosque in the town center that served as a base for Assad's forces is barely standing, three of its four minarets, from which government snipers would pick out their targets, lie in a crumpled heap. Row after row of breeze block houses bear the scars of war, their windows shattered, their walls flattened by tank fire. "We got at least 27 of these," crows Ido, an FSA fighter pointing to a burnt out Russian made tank. No one says how many Syrian soldiers have perished. Like most of the FSA fighters patrolling Azaz, Ido is a local, who took up arms "because they were killing our children." Before the uprising started a year and a half ago, Ido worked as a mechanic. Many of his fellow fighters made a living smuggling cigarettes and electronic goods across the nearby border into Turkey. Poverty of the masses and the corruption of the elite were what fomented the rebellion, says Abu Shahab, a secular opponent of Nr Assad, who claims to have 200 fighters and "several generals" behind him. Early in Februarythe Syrian army rolled in with 40 tanks to make sure the town remained under the government's thumb, but soon Mr Assad's forces were facing a revolt. "Every day they would murder our people, one day two, the other day three, but every day murdering, murdering," says another fighter. He admits that the rebels are getting some help from the outside, including Turkey.