SYRIAN REBEL STRONGHOLD

backed by Russian warplanes took on mostly jihadist fighters in an area straddling the border between Idlib and Hama provinces.

The fighting, which could signal the start of a major offensive to wrest Idlib province from rebels dominated by a former alQaeda affiliate, escalated on Thursday.

Since then, at least 68 people had been killed in the ongoing clashes centred here, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Among them were at least 21 civilians, said Rami Abdel Rahman, who heads the Britainbased monitor.

They were killed in air strikes carried out by Russian warplanes and by barrel bombs dropped by Syrian aircraft, he said.

Soldiers and members of allied paramilitary units, numbering 27, were killed in the fighting, as well as 20 rebels from Islamist groups or from former al-Qaeda affiliate Fateh al-Sham, he said.

Abdel Rahman said the latest deaths brought the number of civilians killed in the area since Monday to 42 and the death toll among combatants to 90.

An AFP correspondent near the front line said aerial activity was intense and the entire area rocked by frequent air strikes.

Through loudspeakers, rebel leaders warned remaining civilians that Friday Muslim prayers were cancelled and all residents should stay home.

Hundreds of civilians fled the scattering of villages in the area, creating queues of cars and pickup trucks loaded down with bags and furniture on the roads towards the city of Idlib.

Southeast of here, a Syrian cameraman working for proregime TV network Sama was killed on Friday when his crew was targeted by “terrorists” near the village of Umm Haratain, state news agency Sana said.

“The air strikes haven’t been that intense in months in this area,” said Abdel Rahman, adding that the immediate goal of the latest regime push was to retake control of the southeast of the province.

The Islamic State jihadist group, which proclaimed a “caliphate” over swathes of Syria and Iraq in 2014, has now lost almost all the land it once controlled.

But, other factions opposed to the regime of President Bashar al-Assad still control pockets scattered across Syria, the largest one being Idlib province, which borders Turkey. AFP