— The rebels huddled before darkness near the edge of the Syrian Air Force base. They were about 40 men, hiding beside small buildings on the flatlands south of Aleppo.

Each man carried little more than a rifle and several dozen cartridges. They had gathered for an effort that illustrated the lopsided nature of the fight for Syria: Lightly armed men trying to remove Syria’s attack jets from the skies.

Roughly two months into this important yet scarcely documented battle, Syria’s antigovernment fighters have succeeded in laying siege to the heavily fortified Abu ad Duhur Air Base. They have downed at least two of the base’s MIG attack jets. And this month they have realized results few would have thought possible. Having seized ground near the base’s western edge, from where they can fire onto two runways, they have forced the Syrian Air Force to cease flights to and from this place.

“We are facing aircraft and shooting down aircraft with captured weapons,” said Jamal Marouf, a commander credited by the fighters with downing the first MIG-21 here. “With these weapons we are preventing aircraft from landing or taking off.”

This is a significant setback for the government in the northern region, where rebels had already strengthened their position with homemade bombs, making roads too perilous for military vehicles to pass and restricting the military’s movements.

But air power has remained a large advantage for President Bashar al-Assad, whose air force has pounded many cities and towns

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/49190164/ns/world_news-the_new_york_times/?ocid=msnhp

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