Syria’s Assad: Army focusing on holding most important areas
▻http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/07/26/us-mideast-crisis-syria-idUSKCN0Q007H20150726
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said on Sunday the army had been forced to give up areas in order to hold onto more important ones in its fight with insurgents, and the scale of the war meant the military faced a manpower shortage.
In a remarkably frank assessment of the strains afflicting the Syrian military after more than four years of conflict, Assad said the type of war confronting Syria meant the army could not fight everywhere for risk of losing vital ground.
“Sometimes, in some circumstances, we are forced to give up areas to move those forces to the areas that we want to hold onto,” Assad said in a televised speech. “We must define the important regions that the armed forces hold onto so it doesn’t allow the collapse of the rest of the areas.”
