BEIRUT // Extremist rebels overran a military base in north-western Syria on Monday, carting off tanks and other weapons in the latest blow to president Bashar Al Assad’s forces in the region.
The rebels seized control of the Qarmeed base in Idlib province, after hours of heavy fighting, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
The rebel offensive in Idlib has captured the provincial capital, a strategic town as well as villages and military bases since it began last month.
A coalition of anti-Assad factions, including the Al Qaeda-affiliated Al Nusra Front, has demonstrated a degree of sustained coordination previously unseen in northern Syria, contributing to the campaign’s success.
The Observatory said the insurgents captured seven tanks, armoured vehicles, heavy machine guns and ammunition.
The fighters now had turned their guns on the nearby Mastoumeh military base, the Local Coordination Committees activist collective said.
Both groups said government aircraft carried out more than a dozen airstrikes on the Qarmeed base after its fall.
The capture brought the rebel coalition closer to seizing most of Idlib and moving toward Latakia, Mr Al Assad’s ancestral home.
The army had been using the Qarmeed camp to shell rebel-held towns and villages in the strategic agricultural region bordering Turkey.
Meanwhile, four Syrian soldiers were killed by a missile fired from Israeli-occupied territory in the Golan Heights on Sunday night, the Observatory said.
Israel’s security forces said the men were trying to plant bombs near the Israel-Syria border.
* Associated Press and Reuters
