Syrian rebels killed 28 soldiers in attacks on military checkpoints in northern Idlib province yesterday, just hours after a wave of bombings hit Damascus and its outskirts, activists said.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the rebels attacked three military checkpoints near Saraqeb.
Five rebels also died, according to the rights group.
There was no official confirmation of the deaths from authorities.
Fighting in Syria has killed more than 36,000 people since March 2011, when the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad’s regime began.
It started as peaceful protests inspired by the Arab Spring but morphed into a bloody civil war.
The rebels fighting to topple Assad often complain they are outgunned by the military, which in recent days has intensified airstrikes following the failure of a UN-backed truce over a four-day holiday weekend that never took hold.