Syrian regime fights jihadists for airbase, monitor says

Syrian regime forces face fierce resistance from jihadists as they fight to capture a key airbase in the northwestern province of Idlib, a monitor says.

Russia-backed government forces battle their way into the Abu Duhur military airport as they pressed a weeks-long battle in the last province beyond their control.

Idlib province is almost entirely held by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, a jihadist outfit dominated by Al-Qaeda’s former Syrian affiliate.

Government fighters have seized a string of villages in the southeast of the province since launching their offensive on December 25.

But today, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham and its Islamist allies led a counter-attack, retaking several villages from the regime, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Sixteen jihadists and rebels were killed in the counter-attack as they sought to cut off regime forces at the airport from their rear bases, the Britain-based war monitor said. Yesterday, 35 soldiers were killed at the airport, according to the Observatory.

The regime lost control of the Abu Duhur airbase in 2015 after a two-year siege by jihadists, with only the Shiite villages of Fuaa and Kafraya remaining under its control in the whole province.

— AFP