Syrian Warplanes Hit Rebels Near Base in North

Syrian warplanes hit rebel positions near a contested military air base in the north on Tuesday, activists said, while President Bashar Assad's forces nearby pressed ahead with an offensive against opposition fighters in the country's largest city Aleppo.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that fighter jets struck near the Kweiras air base near the Turkish border early Tuesday. Opposition forces fighting to oust Assad's regime for more than two years have been trying for months to take Kweiras and two other military air bases nearby.

Assad's regime has relied heavily in the past year on its air force to neutralize the opposition's territorial gains. In the last year, rebels have been able to capture much of the area near the Turkish border, several districts in Aleppo, the whole city of Raqqa and even dams on the River Euphrates. But they have had difficulty running these areas effectively because of the threat of attack from the air.

The Observatory, which relies on a network of informants inside Syria, also reported heavy clashes in Aleppo, the country's commercial hub.

There were no reports of casualties in either the strikes or the fighting.

The regime announced June 10 that it has launched an offensive in the north with the aim of ousting rebels from Aleppo neighborhoods that the opposition captured last summer.

Assad's army hopes to maintain the momentum from its victory in the town of Qusayr, in central Syria, which the regime captured earlier this month largely with the help of Hizbullah.