Syria Live Coverage: Fighting Escalates Near Damascus
 Sunday, March 17, 2013 at 15:54 |
Sunday, March 17, 2013 at 15:54 |      Scott Lucas in
Scott Lucas in   EA Middle East and Turkey,
EA Middle East and Turkey,   EA USA,
EA USA,   Middle East and Iran
Middle East and Iran  See also Syria Feature: Remembering A Voice For the Syrian Revolution br>
Iraq (and Beyond) Coverage: At Least 10 Killed in Basra Bomb
1544 GMT: Insurgent Advance Near Golan Heights. Insurgents commanders said they have seized a Syrian military intelligence compound in the southern Hauran Plain near the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
The compound near the Yarmouk River in the town of Shagara, 8 kilomtetres (5 miles) from a cease-fire line with Israel, fell after a five-day siege, opposition sources said.
"We have completely taken over this security compound this morning. It's a command centre for the shabiha [pro-Assad militia]," said Abu Iyas al-Haurani, a member of the Yarmouk Martyrs Brigade. "Anyone who was arrested in the Yarmouk Valley was sent to this military intelligence headquarters to be tortured and it has a strategic importance. With its fall we have completed our liberation of the town of Shagara."







