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 Islamic State, an offshoot of al Qaeda, stormed Tabqa air base
near Raqqa city on Sunday after days of fighting with the army that
cost more than 500 lives, according to monitoring group the Syrian
Observatory for Human Rights.
Tabqa was the army's last foothold in an area otherwise controlled
by the militants, who have seized large areas of Syria and Iraq. The
United States has carried out air strikes on the group in Iraq and
is considering its options in Syria.
In one picture posted online, a group of militants in balaclavas are
seen gunning down at least seven kneeling men identified as army
personnel. It was not possible to immediately confirm the
authenticity of the images.
Other photos showed groups of eight to 10 soldiers taken hostage,
some with face wounds and three identified as officers. The photos
appeared to show at least two dozen hostages.
One picture reportedly shows the body of a pilot who had appeared on
Syrian television before the attack on the base explaining how the
army could easily defend it. Others show militants holding up knives
next to groups of captured men.
Syrian state television aired a report last week interviewing army
personnel at the base and showing its defenses, just before Islamic
State overran it.
After the capture on Sunday, Syrian state television said the
military was "regrouping" and that there was a "successful
evacuation of the airport" as the army continued strikes on Islamic
State in areas close to the base.
The Observatory said 346 Islamic State fighters were killed and more
than 170 members of the security forces had died in five days of
fighting over the base, one of the deadliest clashes between the two
groups since the start of the war.
The photos also showed the attack on the base, which used at least
one tank. Other photos showed bodies and abandoned military
hardware, such as a jet, warplane munitions and missiles, although
it was not clear if any were operational.
"THEY SOLD YOU FOR CHEAP"
Syrian newspapers have had very little coverage of the air base
capture and the state news agency SANA and Syrian television have
since focused on army operations against Islamic State elsewhere in
the country.
Although it is not clear how widespread public anger in Syria might
be about the fall of the airbase, some people supportive of the army
expressed anger on social media.
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The Facebook page "Eagles of the Tabqa Military Airport, Men of
Assad," reposted the photo showing the apparent execution of the
soldiers and wrote "No comment. They sold you for cheap, God damn
all traitors." "Thousands of people want to know the fate of their
sons, and our only source is Islamic State," another user commented
and made a sarcastic remark about the lack of coverage on SANA.
Some people on Twitter called for the resignation of the defense
minister, with the hashtag "Minister of Death" in Arabic.
One activist who is from the same Alawite sect as President Bashar
al-Assad but opposes him said people in the Alawite community in the
coastal town of Tartous felt scared and angry.
"But as always they also believe there's nothing they can do about
it, that they have no choice but the status quo because the
alternative is scarier," he said when contacted online.
"A lot of loyalists here are optimistic after Walid al-Moualem's
speech. They're hoping the world will come to help Assad in his
fight against terrorism," he added. Moualem, Syria's foreign minister, said on Monday that Damascus
would cooperate in any international effort to fight Islamic State.
But a White House spokesman said there was no plan to coordinate
with Damascus on how to counter the threat.
President Barack Obama approved U.S. surveillance flights to gather
intelligence on the extremist group after the release of a graphic
video last week showing the beheading of U.S. journalist James Foley
by an Islamic State fighter.
(Editing by Angus MacSwan)
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