The main Western-backed Syrian opposition group elected a former political prisoner on 6 July as its new president, filling a post that has been vacant for months due to divisions among President Bashar Assad’s opponents. Inside Syria, government troops advanced into rebel-held areas of the central city of Homs, pushing into a heavily contested neighbourhood after pummelling it with artillery that drove out opposition fighters, an activist said on 6 July.
The Syrian National Coalition said in a statement that Ahmad al-Jarba received 55 votes from the 114-member council in the poll that took place in the Turkish city of Istanbul, where many Syrian opposition figures are based. Al-Jarba is from the northeastern province of Hassakeh, and is a member of the powerful Shammar tribe that extends into Iraq. The opposition coalition also elected three vice presidents including Mohammed Farouk Taifour, a senior official with Syria’s Muslim Brotherhood. The other two vice presidents are Salem al-Mislit and prominent opposition figure Suhair Atassi. Badr Jamous was voted in as the SNC’s secretary general.