Syrian regime retakes four villages on strategic plain

Syrian government forces recaptured four northwestern villages Tuesday as they pounded the area with airstrikes in a counter-attack on insurgents threatening strongholds of President Bashar Assad, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Government warplanes by Tuesday afternoon had launched more than 100 airstrikes since the previous night on parts of the Sahl al-Ghab plain seized by rebels in an advance this month, the Observatory said.

This month’s insurgent advance into the plain had brought rebels, including the Al-Qaeda-linked Nusra Front, to the eastern edge of mountains that form the traditional heartland of Assad’s Alawite people, forcing an army retreat to new defensive lines.

The four-year-long war has gathered pace recently, intensifying on major front lines including near Damascus, where a government airstrike on a marketplace this week killed 100 people, and in the southern city of Deraa, where the government is battling a new rebel attempt to seize the entire city.

All areas are of vital importance to Assad, who with help from his regional allies Iran and Hezbollah is seeking to shore up control over western areas of the country after losing much of the rest to groups including ISIS.

The rebel advance into Sahl al-Ghab not only threatened the Alawite mountains but opened a route south to the city of Hama, one of the western population centers seen as a priority for Assad.

A source in the Syrian military, which by Assad’s own admission faces a manpower problem, said the army was advancing in the area. Pro-rebel activists on Twitter reported fierce battles between an alliance of insurgent groups and government forces in the area.

The army also launched a third day of airstrikes on the town of Douma to the northeast of Damascus, the target of Sunday’s marketplace air raid, the Observatory said. Fighting between rebel and government forces was also reported in the nearby area of Harasta.

Sunday’s airstrike in Douma drew condemnation from the United States, which says Assad has lost the legitimacy to rule.

The violence underscores the huge challenges facing a new diplomatic effort to advance potential solutions to the conflict that has killed an estimated quarter of a million people and driven more than 11 million from their homes.

The Observatory estimates Assad controls a quarter of Syria, including cities where the bulk of the population live.