Syrian rebels threaten key position near regime bastion — monitor

BEIRUT — Syrian rebel groups allied with Al Qaeda fought on Wednesday to advance on a key military headquarters near President Bashar Al Assad's coastal heartland, a monitor said.

The Islamist rebels, including fighters from Central Asia and Chechens as well as jihadists from Syria's Al Qaeda branch Al Nusra Front, were pressing an advance on the village of Jureen, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman said rebels had seized Bahsa village, less than two kilometres from Jureen, in heavy fighting which cost the lives of 19 rebels, 17 pro-regime militiamen and five villagers. 

Perched on a plateau in the central province of Hama, Jureen stands between Sahl Al Ghab, a plain where Assad's army has for several days been fighting the rebels, and the pro-Assad coastal province of Latakia to the west.

The Syrian military and its allies — including Iranian officers and fighters with Lebanese Shiite movement Hizbollah — have set up a military headquarters in the village to oversee the battle for the plain.

If the rebels manage to capture Jureen, they will be able to advance into the mountains of Latakia and bomb several communities from Assad's Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam.

Among them would be Qardaha, Assad's ancestral town and home to the tomb of his father and predecessor Hafez Al Assad.

"It will then be an existential battle for the Alawites," Abdel Rahman said. "There are calls for Alawite youth to take up arms and to defend the areas surrounding Jureen."

The Britain-based observatory relies on a wide network of activists, medics and fighters throughout Syria to gather information on the conflict.

A military source on the ground said the aim of the rebels is "to reach the [Mediterranean] coast from the east".