This is the moment a Syrian army base is blown into the air by rebels using their latest tactic — tunnel bombs.
The Islamist fighters said they mined a half-mile tunnel under the Wadi Deif base, which has been holding out against the rebels for a year, filled it with 132,000 pounds of explosives — and let it rip.
At least 20 soldiers were killed as the bomb made the ground balloon, then hurled debris and soil dozens of yards into the sky.
The tunnel attack appears to be an ancient tactic brought back with a modern twist in Syria’s bloody struggle, where it has been used in other strikes.
In medieval times and even earlier, besieging forces would dig tunnels under enemy fortresses to collapse them. In World War I, the Allies and the Germans dug under each other’s trenches to plant enormous mines.
The Islamic Front, a coalition of rebel groups, had been trying to capture the Wadi Deif army base for more than a year. The tunnel apparently took them seven months to build.
It is one of the regime’s last strongholds in Idlib province, along with the nearby Hamadiyeh military base, which is also under attack by rebels trying to overthrow President Bashar al-Assad’s government.
A statement released by the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said while there was no precise toll, “dozens of soldiers have been killed or injured.”
It added: “The heroes of the Islamic Front, in coordination with the Furqan Brigade, blew up the Wadi Deif base … after digging [the tunnel].”
The strike targeted a checkpoint in the base — and follows another tunnel bombing at Wadi Deif, in which at least 30 Syrian soldiers died.
Rebels told Reuters the pinpoint blasts would help them break into the base when it comes time for a final assault.
“Another attack like this and we won’t even need to move in to take the base,” one told the news agency.
However, some analysts believe Assad’s forces have seized the momentum in the country’s three-year-old civil war ahead of presidential elections scheduled for June 3.
While Wednesday’s attack has momentarily focused attention on south Idlib, which is in Syria’s northwest, bordering on Turkey, the bloody struggle — which has seen terrible human rights abuses on a massive scale by both sides — continues elsewhere.
In the latest horror, a massive car bomb ripped through a crowded garage Thursday near a rebel-held border crossing between Syria and Turkey, killing at least 43 people and wounding almost 100.
The area has seen fierce fighting between rival rebel groups, but it is not clear who was behind this outrage.
Car bombings have become common in Syria as the influence of Islamic extremist groups has risen, dampening the support of the US and its European allies for the opposition seeking to oust Assad.
Opposition activists have blamed al Qaeda-linked fighters, who are engaged in deadly fighting between rival rebel factions in Syria.
This story originally appeared on news.com.au.