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Al-Qaeda’s Syrian affiliate and other Islamist fighters made gains Friday in a joint offensive on the last major regime bastion in the northwest province of Idlib, an activist group said, AFP reported.

The assault, which began Thursday, has seen the Nusra Front and allied groups seize three checkpoints around the large town of Jisr al-Shughur, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

The town is strategically located near the Turkish border and along a key route leading west to the regime’s stronghold of Latakia province.

“There are very fierce clashes ongoing since the early morning, and intense aerial bombing. The regime has conducted 34 airstrikes in the area since Friday morning,” Observatory head Rami Abdel-Rahman told AFP.

He said the Nusra Front had launched a wave of suicide attacks on the town’s outskirts and sent 15 fighters wearing suicide belts into Jisr al-Shughur itself.