Free Syrian Army fights to control Aleppo Airport

Syrian army tanks pursue opposition fighters in the Latakia province, western Syria Syrian government troops clashed with opposition Free Syrian Army fighters as they tried to gain control of Aleppo International Airport on Saturday. The fighting comes after reports on Tuesday that rebels, some of them from the jihadist Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS), captured the key Minnigh air base in the northern province.
Meanwhile, Syrian opposition fighters continued to battle regime forces in the coastal city of Latakia, where the military killed at least 20 people overnight, according to the British group Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR).
In the eastern province of Deir al-Zour, opposition figures announced on Saturday that the Free Syrian Army had gained control of the Baath Party headquarters and a public services building.
In the capital on Saturday, Colonel Ali Mohsen, director of a military driving school on the outskirts of Damascus, was killed by 11 former conscripts after they defected from the regime army, activists said. Governmental troops bombed several neighbourhoods in the capital, including Qaboun, Asali and Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp, while Barzeh and Jobar were hit by government airstrikes which left many dead and wounded.
Meanwhile, in the key strategic province of Latakia, air strikes by the Syrian military killed at least 20 people overnight, SOHR said on Saturday.
\"The toll in several air strikes on the town of Salma in Jabal Akrad rose to at least 20 people,\" Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman said.
Abdel Rahman said 10 of those killed were believed to be civilians, although many of the bodies were so badly damaged that it was not immediately possible to identify them.
At least six of those killed were Syrian rebel fighters, while four were foreign volunteers, he added.
\"The number of deaths is expected to rise because of the number of wounded and those in serious condition among them,\" he said.
Latakia province is a stronghold of the Alawite minority of President Bashar al-Assad.
In recent days, rebel forces have captured a number of villages in the Jabal Akrad, a hill district in the north of the province.
The army has hit back, sparking fierce fighting that has left dozens dead on both sides, according to the Observatory.
Additional source: AFP