Damascus suburb surrenders to government

An activist in the suburb, Dani Qappani, said that the residents had no desire to negotiate with Assad’s government but that their “circumstances grew too difficult.”

The development came as an uneasy truce continued to hold Thursday between Turkish troops and Kurdish-led forces in northern Syria despite Ankara’s vow that it would never negotiate with what it calls a “terror organization.” The United States has called on both sides to stop fighting each other after Turkey’s incursion into the area last week and instead focus on defeating the Islamic State group.

Elsewhere in Syria on Thursday, at least 25 civilians, including six children, were killed in possible government airstrikes on Hama province as rebels made new gains there, activists said.

The Hama-based Syrian Press Center, an activist group operated by Ahmed al-Ahmed, said at least 10 people were killed when warplanes struck a crowd of people displaced from Suran, a town north of the city of Hama, which was seized by opposition fighters. Another 15 people were killed farther to the west, the center said.

The rebel offensive is led by an Islamic group, Jund al-Aqsa, and several factions from the Western-backed Free Syrian Army. In the past three days, the insurgents have pushed their way from the north of the province, where they are usually based, south toward government-held areas.

Al-Ahmed said the rebels were only 5 miles away from the provincial capital, Hama. They have taken over a government military base and control several towns along the highway linking Hama to Damascus after a “surprising” government retreat, he said.

The advances in Hama are significant because if rebels control the city and the highway, they can sever government supply lines and deprive Assad of a traditional stronghold.

Al-Ahmed, who spoke from Turkey, said government forces in Hama province might have been weakened because many troops were transferred to the city of Aleppo, where they have gotten bogged down in fighting with advancing rebels.

A photo provided by the Syria Press Center, an anti-government media group, shows rescue workers using a bulldozer Thursday to remove a burned van after airstrikes hit west of the town of Suran, killing at least 10 people.