Rebels retake Syria's Latakia

Jihadi groups succeeded on Friday in retaking Syria's Latakia town, just four months after the Syrian government forces captured it, officials said.

The rebels' First Coastal Division, the Turkey-backed Ahrar al-Sham, the Saudi-backed Islam Army, and the al-Qaida-linked Nusra Front among other rebel factions, retook the town of Kinsabba, which was the last major rebel stronghold to return to the government troops last February in the countryside of Latakia, Xinhua news agency reported.

The rebels also retook control of around 13 villages in Latakia, as part of a wide-scale offensive they unleashed on the northern countryside of Latakia on June 27.

The army forces backed by Russia recaptured Kinsabba in February, in an operation aimed at dislodging the jihadi groups from northern Latakia, the hometown of President Bashar al-Assad and the heartland of the minority Alewite group.

--IANS

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