Syrian jihadist rebel fighters have attacked Syrian regime troops stationed around an airbase in Northwestern Syria.

Clashes between mostly jihadist rebel fighters and President Bashar al-Assad’s forces at Taftanaz airbase in Idlib province killed four insurgents and an unknown number of soldiers on Tuesday and Wednesday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Wednesday.

The rebel assault came after authorities announced the temporary closure of the international airport in Aleppo province on Tuesday, after days of attacks there by the insurgents who hold vast swathes of territory in northern Syria.

A local resident told AFP that the army was carrying out air raids around the Taftanaz base in an attempt to repel the multipronged attack headed by the Islamist groups the Al-Nusra Front and Ahrar al-Sham.

Fighting also broke out around the crucial Wadi Deif base, one of the last regime bastions in northwestern Syria, in a fresh jihadist-led bid to wrest control of the strategic post.

Insurgents captured the nearby town of Maaret al-Numan, located on the important Damascus-Aleppo highway, in October.

Near Damascus, regime forces bombarded districts to the southwest of the capital including Daraya, the site of a massacre last year, and where the army has been launching a fierce bid to regain control.

The observatory, which relies on a network of activists and medics on the ground to compile its tolls, reported that 104 people were killed nationwide on Tuesday, including 35 civilians.

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