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A10 WORLD NEWS
Saturday 16 September 2017
Aided by Russia; King’s forces arrest prominent

Syrian forces consolidate military gains Saudis in warning to his critics

By NATALIYA VASILYEVA peration to retain its pres- dusty street next to a build-
Associated Press ence in Hama province in ing with IS slogans written By AYA BATRAWY senior royals, King Salman
OKEIRBAT, Syria (AP) — central Syria. on the walls of what used Associated Press stripped the Interior Min-
Government troops and It also shows the determi- to be an Islamic law court. DUBAI, United Arab Emir- istry of its broad powers,
their allies intensified an nation of the government After Assad’s troops be- ates (AP) — When news relegating its work to traf-
offensive Friday against Is- of President Bashar Assad sieged Okeirbat in mid-Au- broke of a possible break- fic fines, drug enforcement
lamic State militants in cen- to uproot the group from gust, a Russian missile strike through in an impasse that and passport control. The
tral Syria, trying to consoli- the area, which had been on Aug. 29 destroyed the has pitted Qatar against its Interior Ministry was essen-
date their control on the a launching pad for at- tank factory, which had Arab neighbors for the past tially stripped of its teeth
area. tacks. been in operation since three months, one of Saudi as the most feared security
Arabia’s most well-known apparatus in the country.
clerics expressed his sup- Political risk consultancy
port for reconciliation in a Eurasia Group estimates
tweet to his more than 14 that “in the near future”
million followers. King Salman could relin-
“May God bring their hearts quish power to MBS, giving
together for the good of the aging monarch an op-
their people,” Salman al- portunity to oversee a po-
Ouda wrote, garnering tentially fraught transition
15,000 likes, 13,000 retweets while he’s still alive.
and nearly 2,000 responses. The spate of arrests this
Within hours of his post Sat- week could be seen as an
urday, the cleric was de- attempt by MBS to show
tained, sparking the start of strength ahead of such a
a crackdown in which at move.
least 30 people have been It also helps appease ultra-
rounded up in recent days conservative Salafi Saudi
as apparent Islamist sym- clerics, known as Wah-
pathizers and critics of the habis, who disagree with
crown prince, according Islamist calls for Western-
to Saudi rights activists. style ballot box democ-
Among those reportedly racy. They have also been
detained was Awad al-Qa- rankled by aspects of the
rni, another popular cleric 32-year-old crown prince’s
who was banned from writ- reform agenda, known as
In this Wednesday, Sept. 13, 2017 photo Syrian and Russian flags wave as local residents stand at
the check-point of the de-escalation zones near Homs, Syria. Hundreds of people, mostly women ing on Twitter in March on Vision 2030.
and elderly men, living on the both sides which recently was a frontline between Syrian gov- charges he spread content Saudi Arabia’s council of
ernment forces and the Free Syrian Army flocked to a Russian military police check-point on on social media that could state-backed Wahhabi
Wednesday to get Russian food aid. jeopardize public order clerics said on Twitter after
(AP Photo/Nataliya Vasilyeva) and provoke public opin- the arrests that the country
The Syrian troops and Rus- The Russian military has pro- 2015 providing armored ion. was founded on the Quran
sian military police pa- vided extensive air cover vehicles for suicide mis- The arrests have thrown an and the words and actions
trolled the dusty and des- for Assad, Moscow’s long- sions, Lapin said. Extremist already anxious kingdom of the Prophet Muhammad
olate streets of Okeirbat, time ally, in the civil war. It leaflets and ammunition into deeper unease, rais- “so there is no place for po-
which was recaptured sought to portray the cap- crates still sat on the fac- ing questions about the litical parties or ideologies.”
from the extremists on ture of Okeirbat as a major tory floor. country’s steadiness amid To generate more income
Sept. 2. breakthrough, helping an The militants also had an mounting speculation that and appeal to an antsy
A militant counteroffen- offensive in which Syrian extensive network of un- Crown Prince Mohammed population of mostly young
sive was crushed Thursday government forces broke derground tunnels, some bin Salman, also known as people, MBS is encourag-
amid intense Russian air- a siege by IS militants on of them 800 meters (nearly MBS, could soon replace ing Saudis to spend more
strikes. Distant thuds of ar- the strategic city of Deir el- a half-mile) long. his father as king. of their money locally on
tillery were heard in Friday Zour only two weeks ago. “The town was prepared Saudi rights activists say the entertainment, like once-
afternoon and evening, in- “Their defeat here helped for a siege and had a net- arrests are being carried banned musical concerts.
dicating the persistence of to carry out the offensive work of underground bun- out by agents of the State He is also behind plans
the fighting. on Deir el-Zour, reach the kers, and the Syrian army Security Presidency, a new for the development of a
The militants had con- Euphrates River and break was fighting the militants for body whose forces report semi-autonomous Red Sea
trolled Okeirbat since 2014, the siege and liberate Deir practically every house,” directly to the king. Previ- resort destination, where
and Russian military officials el-Zour,” said Lt. Gen Alex- Lapin said, adding that the ously, the kingdom’s strict dress
showed visiting journalists a ander Lapin, chief of staff population had dwindled they were under the scope codes and gender segre-
bombed-out warehouse of the Russian forces in Syr- to 2,500, all of whom fled of Prince Mohammed bin gation rules would not be
that was used by the ex- ia.“ by the time the town was Nayef — the former crown enforced.
tremists to repair and fortify All the conditions are in recaptured.More than two prince who was plucked The crackdown is the
tanks in the once-thriving place for the final stage weeks of fighting in cen- out of the line of succes- clearest sign yet that the
town of 10,000 people, the of defeating IS in the west- tral Syria has left hundreds sion in June to make way 32-year-old crown prince is
largest held by IS in Hama ern and eastern corners of dead on both sides, the for MBS. The former crown taking policy cues from the
province. Syria,” Lapin told a group Britain-based Syrian Ob- prince was also removed more experienced Crown
The fight for Okeirbat, of international reporters servatory for Human Rights from his post as the coun- Prince of Abu Dhabi, Mo-
which lies on a strategic brought to Okeirbat on a said. The extremists still hold try’s longtime security czar. hammed bin Zayed, said
route linking western Syria tour organized by the Rus- some villages around it Within days of the conten- Lori Boghardt, senior fellow
to IS strongholds in the east, sian Defense Ministry. He and fighting still continues tious ouster, which did not at the Washington Institute
reflects the group’s des- spoke while standing on a there.q have the full backing of for Near East Policy. q