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Syria conflict: Nusra Front rebels attack Idlib | |
(about 1 hour later) | |
Al-Qaeda-affiliated militants and other Syrian rebel groups have attacked the government-held city of Idlib, briefly seizing several government buildings. | |
The Nusra Front said its fighters killed dozens of government soldiers before being pushed back. | |
The Syrian government has maintained control of Idlib, in the country's north-west, since it was briefly taken over by rebel groups in 2012. | |
Syria's civil war, in its fourth year, has claimed more than 200,000 lives. | |
In other developments, a video believed to have been produced by Islamic State (IS) militants purports to show the abducted British journalist John Cantlie in the Syrian Kurdish town of Kobane. | In other developments, a video believed to have been produced by Islamic State (IS) militants purports to show the abducted British journalist John Cantlie in the Syrian Kurdish town of Kobane. |
In the video, Mr Cantlie refers to events from the last fortnight, including a US air drop of weapons and ammunition intended for Kurdish fighters in Kobane. | |
Barrel bombs | |
The BBC's Jim Muir in Beirut says the Nusra Front and its allies have been making slow advances in the north-west and south of Syria, while global attention has been focused on the US air campaign against Islamic State (IS). | |
Monday's attack on Idlib began at dawn with rebel fighters attacking the town from all sides, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), a UK-based group that gathers reports from a network of activists in Syria. | |
Much of Idlib province is under rebel control but the town that shares its name has remained in the hands of forces loyal to the government of President Bashar al-Assad. | |
The SOHR says the Syrian air force has carried out 600 air strikes in the past week, including barrel bombs dropped from helicopters. About 180 civilians have died in the attacks, the group says. | |
President Assad's government has been battling against an armed and increasingly fragmented uprising. Rebel groups such as the Nusra Front and Islamic State (IS) have also been fighting between themselves. |