Forces opposed to President Bashar al-Assad have captured the Aleppo airport and are attacking the western city of Hama, according to local officials and a Britain-based war monitor.
Rebel forces advanced in Syria on Sunday amid fierce fighting, capturing the airport and military academy of the major city of Aleppo and attacking the outskirts of the western city of Hama, according to rebel officials and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Government troops loyal to President Bashar al-Assad were trying to repel them, rushing reinforcements to the battle and launching airstrikes on Aleppo, the Observatory said.
The rebels had captured much of Aleppo a day earlier in a surprise offensive. They now control a broad stretch of land across the provinces of Hama, Idlib and Aleppo, in the west and northwest of Syria, according to information from officials from the rebel-linked administration and the Observatory, a Britain-based war monitor.
In a further sign of growing strength, the rebels also said they now controlled all of Idlib and issued a demand for Kurdish forces in Aleppo to leave with their weapons for the northeast.
The New York Times observed rebels in control of parts of Hama Province as well as neighborhoods in the east of the city of Aleppo and parts of the countryside beyond it that government forces had held only days earlier.
Outside the city of Hama, Syrian government military vehicles could be seen all over the roads, apparently abandoned by fleeing government troops after they ran out of fuel.
