BEIRUT (AP)
-- Syrian government forces bombed a strategic rebel town in the
country's north for the third straight day Saturday, pounding it with
airstrikes that killed at least three people, activists said.
President
Bashar Assad's troops have in recent weeks seized the momentum in the
civil war, now in its third year, and have been on offensive against
rebels on several fronts, including in the northern Idlib province along
the border with Turkey.
In Idlib, government
forces this week besieged the town of Saraqeb, hitting it with rockets,
tanks and air raids, said the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human
Rights.
On Saturday, the group said military
aircraft dropped at least 15 makeshift bombs, known as barrel bombs, on
the town. The bombs are made of hundreds of pounds (kilograms) of
explosives stuffed into barrels.
Meanwhile, an
airstrike by a fighter jet killed at least three people, including two
children, said the Observatory, which relies on reports from a network
of activists on the ground.
The number of
casualties was likely to rise because many of the people have been
buried in the rubble of buildings that collapsed in the shelling, the
Observatory added.
Assad's troops are in firm
control of the provincial capital, also called Idlib, while dozens of
rebel brigades control the surrounding countryside. Clashes between the
warring sides have been fierce as Assad's troops try to push opposition
fighters further away from the city.
With a
population of 40,000 people, Saraqeb is Idlib's second largest urban
center. It has been under opposition's control for more than a year and
it is strategically important for both sides because of its location
along the highway that links Syria's largest city, Aleppo, with the
capital, Damascus, the seat of Assad's power.
The
town also connects Aleppo, the country's commercial hub that has been
carved up between government- and rebel-held areas over the past year,
with the coastal city of Latakia. The city is a stronghold of Syria's
ruling Alawite sect, which the president's family also belongs to.
Opposition
fighters have been using the highway to ferry their own supplies and
have been launching guerrilla attacks on army convoys traveling between
military bases in Idlib province and Aleppo.
The
Observatory's director Rami Abdul Rahman said the army's latest
offensive on Saraqeb could be a push to set the stage for an eventual
offensive on Aleppo. But the rebels have kept their ground at least 15
kilometers (9 miles) from Saraqeb, forcing the regime to rely on its air
power.
Syria's state news agency said the
army fought "terrorists" around Idlib province, destroying their
hideouts and makeshift weapons factories in several villages and towns
near the provincial capital, including in Saraqeb. Several "terrorists"
belonging to the radical Islamic group Jabhat al-Nusra were killed in
the fighting, the report said.
The Syrian
government refers to those trying to topple Assad's regime as terrorists
who are acting out a conspiracy orchestrated by the West and the Gulf
Arab countries, who back the opposition in the conflict.
More
than 93,000 people have been killed since the Syria crisis started in
March 2011 as largely peaceful protests against Assad's rule. It
escalated into a civil war after opposition supporters took up arms to
fight a brutal government crackdown on dissent.
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