BEIRUT — Syrian warplanes pounded rebel targets in two northern provinces Thursday as President Bashar Assad's troops pushed on with an offensive to reclaim more territory from the opposition.
The strikes came against the backdrop of a new, joint U.S.-Russia effort to bring the sides in the 26-month-long conflict to the negotiating table.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Assad's air force was shelling rebel positions in Aleppo and Idlib on Thursday. The group said regime planes were hitting rebels near the Mannagh military air base outside of the northern city of Aleppo, the provincial capital.
The rebels stormed the base, which lies near the border with Turkey, and captured parts of it Sunday but were later forced to retreat in the face of regime's superior air power.
In neighboring Idlib province, heavy clashes were under way Thursday outside several army bases near the government-controlled provincial capital, said the Observatory, which relies on a network of informants based inside Syria.
In Damascus, the state-run SANA news agency said government troops regained control of one more village and some land near the country's border with Lebanon on Thursday. The agency claimed Assad's troops inflicted heavy losses on the rebels in Aleppo and Idlib.
