BEIRUT, Lebanon, Nov 28, 2024 (BSS/AFP) - A Syria war monitor on Thursday 
said clashes between the army and jihadists killed more than 130 combatants 
in the worst fighting in the country's northwest in years, as the government 
also reported fierce battles.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said jihadist group 
Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and allied factions launched a surprise attack on 
the Syrian army in the northern province of Aleppo on Wednesday.

The toll "in battles ongoing for the past 24 hours has risen to 132, 
including 65 fighters from HTS", 18 from allied factions "and 49 members of 
regime forces", said the Observatory, which relies on a network of sources 
inside Syria.

Some of the clashes, in an area straddling Idlib and Aleppo provinces, are 
less than 10 kilometres (six miles) southwest of the outskirts of Aleppo 
city.

HTS, led by Al-Qaeda's former Syria branch, controls swathes of much of the 
northwest Idlib area and slivers of neighbouring Aleppo, Hama and Latakia 
provinces.

An AFP correspondent reported heavy, uninterrupted clashes east of the city 
of Idlib since Wednesday morning, including air strikes.

A military statement carried by state news agency SANA said that "armed 
terrorist organisations grouped under so-called 'Nusra terrorist front' 
present in Aleppo and Idlib provinces launched a large, broad-fronted attack" 
on Wednesday morning.

It said the attack with "medium and heavy weapons targeted safe villages and 
towns and our military sites in those areas".

The army "in cooperation with friendly forces" confronted the attack "which 
is still continuing", inflicting "heavy losses" on the armed groups, the 
military statement said, without reporting army losses.