8 Troops Dead in Aleppo as Fighting Rages around Idlib Army Base

At least eight soldiers were killed in clashes with rebels at a military checkpoint near the battleground northern city of Aleppo, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Monday, as the Local Coordination Committees said regime forces killed 30 people across the country.

Aleppo, which has been the theater of intense conflict for the past three months, was rocked by a bomb at dawn while a string of rebel-held neighborhoods were bombarded by the army, the Britain-based watchdog said.

South of Aleppo, in Idlib province, heavy fighting raged for a third day around the strategic Wadi Daif military base, near the town of Maaret al-Numan which was captured by rebels on Tuesday last week, the Observatory said.

Eight military vehicles were destroyed in fighting at a military post elsewhere in the province, it added.

In Damascus province, the army on Monday sent shells smashing into a belt of eastern towns held by the rebels, the watchdog said.

In the town of Albu Kamal on the Iraqi border, shelling by the army of rebel positions killed three children aged six, seven and 12, it added.