Beirut: The army of President Bashar al-Assad has launched a counteroffensive following the rapid advance of an Islamist insurgent alliance in Syria.
In the early hours of Wednesday, Syrian military forces pushed the rebels back to about 10 kilometres from the city of Hama, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a war monitoring group, and government sources reported.
Fierce battles took place overnight, with government warplanes supporting ground troops. In the middle of last week, insurgents led by the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) launched an offensive in north-west Syria and took control of Aleppo, the country’s second-largest city, at the weekend. Dozens of people were killed on Tuesday in fighting around Hama, over 100km south of Aleppo. (DPA)
