MESOP Syria Daily: A Rebel Fightback in the Northwest

April 03 – by Scott Lucas – eaworldview – Rebels and Jabhat al-Nusra continued their fightback in northwest Syria for a second day, taking territory in Latakia Province as well as south of Aleppo city.

The advance began on Friday, with rebels claiming that the Assad regime had broken the February 27 cessation of hostilities with operations on the southern Aleppo front. The rebel-Nusra offensive captured hills and the town of Tal al-Eis on the Aleppo-to-Damascus highway.Attacks on Saturday put more pressure on the regime lines from Khan Touman to al-Hadher, both of which had been taken in last autumn’s offensive by Iranian troops, foreign militia, and the Syrian Army, enabled by Russian airstrikes.Yesterday rebels also reportedly reclaimed their first villages in Latakia Province, on the Mediterranean, since the regime-Russian-Iranian offensive in October.

The Free Syrian army and allied groups moved into the villages of Nahshba, Rasha, al-Jinzali, al-Mazighli, and Malik and the Hidada and Rasha hills. They attacked regime headquarters in the town of Kinsabba in Mount al-Akrad with heavy weapons and Grad rockets. The Syrian military, with intense Russian bombing, moved in Kinsabba in mid-February.

A rebel source said that a colonel was among regime casualties, and that a tank was destroyed and four machine guns were seized. www.mesop.de