Fatah Army has fired nearly 400 rockets on two besieged Shiite villages in the northwestern province of Idlib and detonated at least nine car bombs, as regime air force steps up air attacks on Idlib, killing 17 people, a monitor said on Friday.
The renewed attacks on the regime-held villages of Fuaa and Kafraya came after devastating air strikes across Syria that killed at least 130 people in the last 24 hours, 17 of them were killed Friday in Idlib, according to the Syrian Network for Human Rights.
Fuaa and Kafraya are among the few remaining outposts of regime control in the province, and are now completely besieged.
The Army of Fatah has begun the attacks against the villages by July, saying it was retaliation for a regime and Hezbollah militia offensive on Zabadani, the last rebel-held bastion along Syria's border with Lebanon.
Rebels said in previous statement that the attack on Shiite villages would “give you a taste in the north of what our people are tasting in Zabadani.”
Hezbollah had stationed commanders in Kafraya and Foa and had trained local military leaders, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Most of Idlib province, including its provincial capital, is now held by Fatah Army, an alliance of Islamist rebels including al-Qaeda affiliate the Nusra Front, after a sweeping offensive last March.
In next-door Aleppo province, 4 civilians were killed on Friday in aerial attacks by the Syrian regime on al-Ansari neighborhood, SNHR said.
In central Syria, regime army jets carried out at least 25 air strikes on the Islamic State-held city of Palmyra on Friday, killing 10 people, the monitoring groups said.
The Observatory said it was one of the most sustained government bombardments on Palmyra. It came a day after Syrian jets heavily bombed Islamic State’s bastion in the north, the city of Raqqa.
Palmyra, in central Syria and home to vast Roman-era ruins, was seized by Islamic State insurgents from government forces in May.
Activists say the Syrian military frequently uses helicopters to drop crude barrel bombs - giant canisters packed with hundreds of pounds of explosives and scrap metal - on rebel-held towns and neighborhoods.
Bashar al-Assad has denied that barrel bombs are used by the military.
More than 250,000 people have lost their lives in the 4-1/2 year war in Syria.
Zaman Al Wasl
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