Syria’s rebels are winning

The rebels then claimed a massive victory on the night of Nov. 18, sacking the Syrian Army’s 46th Regiment, 15 miles west of Aleppo, after a 50 day-long siege. The real score, though, was in confiscated materiel: Rebels made off with tanks, armored vehicles, Type-63 multiple rocket launchers, artillery shells, howitzers, mortars, and even SA-16 surface-to-air missiles. Gen. Ahmed al-Faj of the Joint Command, a consortium of different rebel battalions, told the Associated Press: “There has never been a battle before with this much booty.” (For a seemingly comprehensive video accounting of the rebel haul, check out Brown Moses’s blog.)

The gains have only continued in the past week. On Nov. 20, rebels hit the Syrian Information Ministry in Damascus with two mortar rounds and stormed an air defense base at Sheikh Suleiman, about 11 miles from the Turkish border, where they seized stocks of explosives before withdrawing to elude retaliatory air strikes. “Assad’s forces use the base to shell many villages and towns in the countryside,” one rebel said. “It is now neutralized.”

There are also signs that bigger gains are on the way. It’s “March to Damascus Week” for the revolutionaries, as a multi-pronged offensive has taken shape in and around the capital.