Two key army bases fall to Nusra in northwest Syria
The Syrian army Monday lost control of two strategic bases in the northwestern province of Idlib to coordinated assaults by Al-Qaeda and other Islamist groups, an activist group said, according to AFP.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the Nusra Front, an Al-Qaeda affiliate, in coordination with Islamist rebels of Jund al-Aqsa and Ahrar al-Sham, seized the Hamidiyeh and Wadi Deif bases, the biggest regime positions in Idlib.
The Nusra Front initially reported a lightning victory in Wadi Deif, putting large swathes of Idlib province, which borders Turkey, under jihadi control.
The takeover was a show of force for the Al-Qaeda branch, which in November drove mainstream rebels seeking President Bashar Assad's ouster from Idlib province.