Mar
07, – Syrian helicopter gunships killed at least six people Friday when
they dropped barrel bombs on the strategic rebel stronghold of Yabroud,
close to the Lebanese border, a monitor said.
The Syrian
Observatory for Human Rights said the attacks followed a string of raids
by regime war planes around the town, which the army is trying to
recapture.
The raids came a day after loyalists backed by Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shiite movement, killed at least 17 Islamist fighters in the battle for Yabroud.
State news agency SANA said army forces carried out a string of operations in Yabroud and its environs on Friday.
The offensive is aimed at securing the Damascus-Homs highway and
severing a key rebel supply line to the town of Arsal in Lebanon’s Bekaa
Valley.
Hezbollah says car bombs used to attack it inside
Lebanon originate in the Yabroud area and are driven to their targets
via Arsal, a Sunni town where support for the Syrian uprising runs high.
In Lebanon, the army said three rockets fired from Syria struck near
the towns of Labweh and Nabi Othman, where Hezbollah wields influence,
but caused no injuries.
The jihadist Islamic State of Iraq and
Greater Syria (ISIS) claimed on Twitter responsibility for the rocket
fire, which it said was in response to the operation against Yabroud.
In central Homs, the Observatory reported at least 14 air strikes
against the areas of Zara and Hosn, while fighting in central Hama
province killed 14 loyalists and nine rebels dead.
The forces
were killed in fighting for the town of Morek, which is on a key army
supply route and was seized by rebels a month ago.
In the
northeast, clashes erupted between government forces and ISIL after
midnight around the regime’s Base 17 camp near Raqqa, the Observatory
said.
More than 140,000 people have been killed in Syria since
the start of a March 2011 uprising against the Assad family’s 40-year
rule.
The revolt began as a peaceful protest but escalated into a civil war after the regime launched a brutal crackdown on dissent.