Troops break siege of key army camps

Beirut: Syrian troops have broken a months-long rebel siege on two key military bases in the northwestern province of Idlib, killing at least 21 opposition fighters, a watchdog said on Sunday. “Regime forces managed to lift the siege on the Wadi Deif and Hamdiya military camps after the army went around the rebel fighters and attacked them from behind,” the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported. At least 21 rebels were killed in the attack, which focussed on the village of Babulin, the Britain-based group said. Troops “now control two hilltops on either side of the Damascus-Aleppo international highway” reopening a supply route for the army, Observatory director Rami Abdul Rahman said. The watchdog said two military trucks carrying materiel and soldiers have since been spotted passing through the area for the first time in months.

The area is in the countryside near the strategic town of Maaret Al Numan, which fell to rebel forces last October. Rebels began blocking military supply routes north and to the nearby Wadi Deif and Hamdiya army bases after they seized Maaret Al Numan, which lies on the Damascus-Aleppo highway. Elsewhere in the country, the Observatory reported air raids on the Al Hajar Al Aswad suburb of southern Damascus, as well as continued shelling of the Daraya suburb, where regime forces have been struggling to oust rebels. In the southern province of Dara’a, government forces destroyed the minaret of the historic Omari mosque, according to opposition activists. In amateur video footage the activists uploaded to YouTube, the mosque can be seen at the end of a street, its towering minaret toppling over after apparent shelling and crumbling into rubble and dust.

Other videos posted online show the mosque, which is thought to date back to the 7th century, had been targeted in shelling for several days.

Violence throughout Syria killed 138 people on Saturday, according to a tally from the Observatory, which relies on a network of doctors and activists on the ground for its figures.

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