Syria govt forces battle rebels near regime bastion

BEIRUT: Syrian troops backed by Hizbullah fighters on Sunday pressed a counteroffensive against rebels near President Bashar al-Assad’s coastal heartland, a monitoring group said.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that more than 100 fighters have been killed in three days of intense clashes in the Sahl al-Ghab region of central Hama province.
The area borders the Latakia province, a bastion of support for Assad and home to his ancestral village.
A rebel alliance including al-Qaeda’s Syria affiliate, al-Nusra Front, launched an offensive late on Monday against Sahl al-Ghab, in a push threatening a string of pro-regime Alawite villages.
The rebel alliance, Army of Conquest, seized more than a dozen strategic hilltops and other positions, including a power plant, before being pushed out by pro-government forces, said the Observatory.
“In the past three days, the army has been able to take back nearly 50 percent of the areas it had lost,” said Rami Abdel Rahman, director of the Britain-based monitor.