Syrian government forces advanced
Saturday towards the rebel-held town of Jisr al-Shughur, where around
250 army soldiers and their families are trapped in a hospital building,
activists said.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said government troops were now within two kilometers (just over a mile) of where the group has been trapped since rebels seized Jisr al-Shughur in northwestern Idlib province two weeks ago.
"Regime forces and allied fighters are now two kilometers from the hospital and desperately want to save the 250 people besieged inside," said Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman.
He said there was fierce fighting between rebels and army backed by airstrikes as they sought to approach the hospital on Jisr al-Shughur's southeastern outskirts.
Government forces inside the hospital have been battling rebels to keep them from entering the building.
It remains unclear how much food and ammunition is available to those trapped, and how many of the 250 people inside are civilians.
A group of rebels including Al-Qaeda's Syrian affiliate the Nusra Front seized Jisr al-Shughur on April 25, shortly after capturing the provincial capital of Idlib city.
The loss of the town, strategically located near the border with rebel-backer Turkey and alongside the government stronghold of Latakia province, was a new setback for Damascus.
Since then, the government has also lost one of its remaining military bases in the province.
On Wednesday, President Bashar Assad pledged that the army would "arrive soon to these heroes trapped in the Jisr al-Shughur hospital".
The same day, government forces began a counteroffensive in the province.
Elsewhere on Saturday, official news agency SANA said at least five civilians were killed and 19 others wounded by rebel shelling in northern Aleppo.
The deaths occurred in the Salaheddin neighborhood of the government-controlled west of the city.
Once Syria's economic powerhouse, Aleppo has been ravaged by the country's war and is divided between government control in the west and rebel control in the east.
Government forces regularly carry out airstrikes and drop so-called barrel bombs on the rebel side, and opposition fighters often fire rockets into the government side. (AFP)
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said government troops were now within two kilometers (just over a mile) of where the group has been trapped since rebels seized Jisr al-Shughur in northwestern Idlib province two weeks ago.
"Regime forces and allied fighters are now two kilometers from the hospital and desperately want to save the 250 people besieged inside," said Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman.
He said there was fierce fighting between rebels and army backed by airstrikes as they sought to approach the hospital on Jisr al-Shughur's southeastern outskirts.
Government forces inside the hospital have been battling rebels to keep them from entering the building.
It remains unclear how much food and ammunition is available to those trapped, and how many of the 250 people inside are civilians.
A group of rebels including Al-Qaeda's Syrian affiliate the Nusra Front seized Jisr al-Shughur on April 25, shortly after capturing the provincial capital of Idlib city.
The loss of the town, strategically located near the border with rebel-backer Turkey and alongside the government stronghold of Latakia province, was a new setback for Damascus.
Since then, the government has also lost one of its remaining military bases in the province.
On Wednesday, President Bashar Assad pledged that the army would "arrive soon to these heroes trapped in the Jisr al-Shughur hospital".
The same day, government forces began a counteroffensive in the province.
Elsewhere on Saturday, official news agency SANA said at least five civilians were killed and 19 others wounded by rebel shelling in northern Aleppo.
The deaths occurred in the Salaheddin neighborhood of the government-controlled west of the city.
Once Syria's economic powerhouse, Aleppo has been ravaged by the country's war and is divided between government control in the west and rebel control in the east.
Government forces regularly carry out airstrikes and drop so-called barrel bombs on the rebel side, and opposition fighters often fire rockets into the government side. (AFP)
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