By Herve Bar

BURJ AL-KHASAB, Sep 18, 2012 (AFP) - It is the dream of every gunner: a single vantage point that encompasses the entire mountainous northwest of Syria, from the Turkish border to the slopes of Latakia on the Mediterranean.

For months the army of President Bashar al-Assad rained shells over the surrounding villages from Burj al-Khasab, a hamlet clinging to the side of a rock but in early September the rebels seized the strategic position after fierce battles.

Burj al-Khasab overlooks two mountain ranges in the the Latakia hinterland: the Turkmen mountain, populated by members of the Turkish-speaking ethnic minority and the Jabal Akrad (or Kurdish mountain) which is in fact inhabited mostly by Sunni Arabs.

Residents of the Kurdish mountain were among the first in Syria to embrace the uprising against the Assad regime and the area is now largely controlled by rebels.

The army has redeployed in neighbouring villages considered to be regime enclaves as they are mostly populated by Alawites, members of the splinter Shiite branch from which the Assad clan hails.

Now the focus of the rebellion is centred around the Turkmen mountain, which had largely stayed out of the political and military upheavals that have gripped the country for the past 18 months.

"Burj al-Khasab was a very important position for the regime, as it allowed them to bomb both the Turkmen and the Kurdish mountains," said the commander of the new rebel position, identifying himself as Abu Jibal, father of mountains.

The road leading to a mobile phone tower at the top of Burj al-Khasab is littered with tree branches severed by shrapnel. Tree trunks are punctured by bullets and severed electrical wires lie on the ground, perforated like Swiss cheese.

Higher up is the usual scene of desolation after a battle. The red and white metal tower has been cut down. The flag of the "New Free Syria" floats at its base, on a charred out building.

The carcass of a burnt-out T-55 tank still aims at the horizon. Dozens of shell casings lie on the sandy earth amid filth, where combat boots lie abandoned in haste alongside gutted cases of ammunition.

The bodies of soldiers have been buried a few inches away.

"I myself have buried nine," says Abu Jibal. "Six soldiers were taken prisoner, and we lost six men just in the assault on the fort."

The operation was carried out by a new force of 11 rebel battalions from Latakia province, comprising about 700 men who have refused to be affiliated with the Free Syrian Army (FSA), according to an exclusive video sent to AFP.

The aim of the operation was "to neutralise Burj al-Khasab and stop the shelling that killed many civilians," a man identifying himself as Abu Badih, commander of the so-called Motaz Billah battalion, says in the video.

A battalion of Turkmen fighters took part in the assault, said Abu Badih, in what confirms the growing interest for them to join the rebellion against the Assad regime.

The army has tried twice to take back the position, said Abu Jibal.

-- An invisible frontline --

----------------------------

A few hundred metres below, the hamlet of Burj al-Khasab has been relatively spared. The mostly Christian villagers had enough time to flee, leaving behind a locked up church.

"Nobody touched it," Abu Jibal said.

The rebels occupy some houses and, armed with heavy machine guns, they control the entrance to the village from behind a wall of sandbags as shells fall at regular intervals.

A mountain covered in forests of evergreen trees lies between the warring factions and Syrian troops are entrenched in the Alawite villages of Tala and Kfarieh.

Near the invisible front line, a handful of houses belonging to "spies", probably Alawites, smoulder. Local farmers come by in their tractors to loot what they can.

The highway from Latakia to Aleppo, the largest city in the north, winds through the valley.

The vast tarmac road and its immense concrete aqueducts are deserted. Armoured vehicles from Assad's army no longer pass. The rebellion appears to hold firm, at least 10 kilometers along this key axis.

hba/mm/am/dav/hkb