TODAY’S MESOP SYRIA News Roundup: Monday, May 26

Rebels grab Khan Sheikhoun along M-5 highwayRebels appear to have captured the a-Salam checkpoint from the Syrian military in the heavily contested Idlib town of Khan Sheikhoun early Monday following a furious weekend assault. The Islamist brigade Feilaq a-Sham released video Monday morning purporting to show its fighters surveying the spoils inside the base, which include regime tanks.

Khan Sheikhoun is considered “the connection between northern Hama province and southern Idlib province,” Mohammed Ibrahim, a citizen journalist based in Idlib, told Syria Direct in March.The claims came one day after rebel fighters released video footage following their takeover of the Syrian army’s al-Khazanat military base to Khan Sheikhoun’s east, following twin suicide car bombings by Jabhat a-Nusra against the installation.

At least 16 government fighters were killed in Sunday’s attack on al-Khazanat, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which called the checkpoint the “Assad forces’ second-biggest stronghold in the area.”