Syrian rebels fight to control airbases

Syrian rebels are staging raids on major military bases across the north of the country in an attempt to counter the regime’s increasing use of devastating strikes from the air.

Unable to progress in major cities where the regime has used air power to bombard their positions, rebels have now changed tactics in the deadlocked civil war by fighting for control of the bases.

Rebels were laying siege to an air-intelligence base west of Aleppo and an airbase to the north of it, and fighting on the edge of two artillery bases either side of the city.

The government announced that General Abdullah Mahmud al-Khalidi, a senior air force commander, was assassinated in north Damascus. The Free Syrian Army claimed responsibility.

In the strategic town of Maarat al-Numan in Idlib province, where rebels have blocked the main road supplying the north of the country, the regime hit back with air strikes around two further bases being attacked by the Free Syrian Army.

The regime was also forced to use air power to support troops fighting rebels inside the capital, Damascus, for the first time on Tuesday, hitting the eastern district of Jobar.

There have been repeated air strikes across the country and particularly around Damascus since Sunday, despite the United Nationsbacked ceasefire that formally ended at midnight on Monday.