Syrian government forces are fighting heavy battles around the central city of Hama trying to halt a rebel advance, an observer says.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that rebel fighters had "surrounded the city of Hama from three sides."
"Fierce clashes took place overnight between rebels and regime forces," particularly in the Jabal Zayn al-Abidin area, north of Hama, the UK-based monitor said.
The head of the Observatory, Rami Abdel Rahman, said government troops were putting up "fierce resistance and trying to stop the rebel advance".
Hama is strategically important to the army as it serves as a buffer to protect the capital Damascus.
The clashes followed a swift offensive by the rebels, who in just a few days seized significant territory, including Syria's second city, Aleppo, from President Bashar Assad's control.
Syrian state media quoted a military source as saying that Russian and Syrian air forces, along with artillery units, had carried out "concentrated strikes on ... terrorists" in the Hama region.
The Observatory says 704 people have been killed in Syria since violence erupted last week, mostly militants but also 110 civilians.
It marks the most intense fighting since 2020 in the civil war-ravaged country, which erupted in 2011 but has been mostly inactive for several years. | BGNES
