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The Syrian Air Defense Chief General Hussein Ishaq was killed on Sunday in a military offensive against rebels near Damascus. General Ishaq was wounded on Saturday during the military’s assault on the town Mleiha to the east of Damascus, and succumbed to his wounds on Sunday. The military offensive aims to increase the area near the capital under the President’s control before the election on June 3rd.
The Air Defense forces have a large base in Mleiha and are responsible for air attacks – they’ve been largely unused in the civil war since the rebels have no air power. General Ishaq, however, is one of the most highly ranked officials to be killed during the conflict in the past three years. The last high-ranking official to have been killed was Hilal al-Assad, former regional head of the National Defense Force militia and cousin of the President. Hilal al-Assad died two months ago in the province of Latakia.
In a statement, rebel group the Islamic Front said, “We announce good news to the Islamic nation, of the killing of one of the leaders of unbelief, General Hussein Yaqoub Ishaq, head of the Air Defense Administration in Mleiha”.Britain-based monitoring group the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights also reported the general’s death in Mleiha.
Mlieha is on the edge of the Ghouta region in the east and is close to the road that connects the international airport and Damascus. The Ghouta region is a mix of small towns and farmland, and has been a rebel base, surrounded by Assad’s forces, for over a year.
The Syrian army, supported by Lebanon’s Hezbollah group and Shi’ite fighters from Iraq, had pushed back the rebels surrounding Damascus and consolidated President Assad’s control over central Syria and the city of Homs, which is the country’s third largest city and shares a border with Lebanon.