Rebels on the attack

SYRIAN opposition rebels launched a wide-scale attack on government forces on Tuesday to try to retrieve areas they lost earlier this month in the northern countryside of Hama, central Syria.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said rebels started with a suicide attack on the Kfar Naboude front in Hama.

The watchdog said battles on the Kfar Naboude front resulted in the killing of 26 Syrian government troops as well as 18 opposition fighters.

Activists posted pictures of rebels driving tanks and firing mortar shells on Syrian army posts in the northern countryside of Hama.

One activist, who requested anonymity for security reasons, said that the opposition fighters managed to advance on the Kfar Naboude front.

He added that opposition fighters also took prisoners from Syrian government troops during the battles.

“Fighters came from the countryside of Aleppo to fight alongside the rebels of Hama and Idlib,” the activist said.

Last month, the forces of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, supported by Russian air power, initiated a massive campaign against a rebel enclave in Hama and the province of Idlib, the last major opposition stronghold in Syria.

The government forces have since seized 16 towns and villages from the rebels, the observatory reported.

The latest escalation has displaced thousands of people and raised fears that a truce of almost eight months in the Idlib enclave will be shattered.

Meanwhile, the UN Human Rights Office in Geneva expressed concern about the military escalation in north-western Syria and said air strikes and ground-based attacks continued to take place in various parts of Idlib and Hama.

It said that the situation remains volatile and the possibility of renewed clashes is high, worsening the prospects for 3 million civilians caught in the crossfire.

“From May 8 to 16, multiple attacks by pro-government forces were registered, resulting in at least 56 civilians killed, including women and children, and severe damage to five schools and a hospital,” the UN said.

Human Rights Watch accused Syrian intelligence of detaining and harassing people in areas taken over from rebels and people with whom reconciliation deals were reached.

HRW said it documented 11 cases of arbitrary detention and disappearance in Daraa, Eastern Ghouta and southern Damascus.