BEIRUT, May 22 (Reuters) – Syrian rebels killed at least 40
soldiers and other fighters loyal to President Bashar al-Assad
as they captured a military base in the northwestern province of
Idlib on Wednesday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights
said.
The anti-Assad monitoring group said the mainly Islamist
rebels, including fighters from the al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front,
seized al-Shabiba military camp near the town of Nayrab on the
main road leading west from Aleppo to the Mediterranean.
The Observatory said al-Shabiba had been used as an
artillery base to bombard rebel positions in the region between
the towns of Saraqeb and Ariha, attacks which it said had killed
hundreds of people.
Fourteen rebels also were killed in the battle for control
of the camp and several military checkpoints nearby, which
followed two weeks of heavy fighting, it added.
The Observatory, which monitors the violence in Syria
through a network of sources on the ground, said the rebel
capture of al-Shabiba base was a significant setback for Assad’s
forces, which have made gains in a series of counter-offensives
further south.
Assad’s troops, backed by Lebanon’s Hezbollah, have been
trying to drive out rebels from the town of Qusair close to the
Lebanese border, which lies close to strategic supply routes
crucial to both rebels and government forces.
(Reporting by Dominic Evans; Editing by Michael Roddy)
