Islamist insurgents shoot dead 56 members of Syrian government forces in a mass execution at airbase captured from the army earlier this month in north-west Syria, says monitor
Islamist rebels operating in north-west Syria executed at least 56 government troops after overrunning a strategic military airport, a watchdog group confirmed on Saturday.
The soldiers had been captured after the fall of Abu al-Duhur airbase in Idlib earlier in September.
• Syrian jets pound Islamic State-held Palmyra
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), a pro-opposition monitor based in the UK with a network of activists on the ground, confirmed the executions on Saturday, raising the death toll on the government side to 71 loyalists, according to SOHR head Rami Abdul Rahman.
Abu al-Duhur, a strategic military airport located 30 miles southeast of Idlib city, had been besieged by opposition forces for more than two years.
It was the last remaining government stronghold in Idlib province, which was overrun by a loose coalition of Islamist factions called the Army of Conquest in a ferocious campaign last March.
Nine days ago, the Army of Conquest, as well as al-Qaeda's Syrian affiliate Jabhat al-Nusra and the Turkistan Islamic Party, launched an attack on the base during an hours-long sandstorm.
With air defences crippled due to low visibility, militants broke through the defensive perimeter and killed dozens of government soldiers while taking others captive.
Syrian pro-government media had confirmed the fall of the airport, but insisted the soldiers protecting the base had withdrawn safely after inflicting "grave losses against the terrorists," the routine
term used by the government to describe the opposition fighting to wrest
control of the country from Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
Mr Rahman claimed that "up to this moment, not a single regime soldier has reached any area controlled by the regime."
"There are still missing people aside from those killed and captured, but none of them have reached any regime checkpoint."
Photo: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
On Friday, opposition supporters on Twitter
uploaded a video depicting soldiers lined up on the tarmac as militants
walk nearby.
Subsequent pictures
show the soldiers killed, their bloodied corpses on the ground. A
bearded fighter triumphantly poses before the camera, one foot placed on
the head of a dead soldier.
• Syrian jets pound Islamic State-held Palmyra
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), a pro-opposition monitor based in the UK with a network of activists on the ground, confirmed the executions on Saturday, raising the death toll on the government side to 71 loyalists, according to SOHR head Rami Abdul Rahman.
Abu al-Duhur, a strategic military airport located 30 miles southeast of Idlib city, had been besieged by opposition forces for more than two years.
It was the last remaining government stronghold in Idlib province, which was overrun by a loose coalition of Islamist factions called the Army of Conquest in a ferocious campaign last March.
Nine days ago, the Army of Conquest, as well as al-Qaeda's Syrian affiliate Jabhat al-Nusra and the Turkistan Islamic Party, launched an attack on the base during an hours-long sandstorm.
With air defences crippled due to low visibility, militants broke through the defensive perimeter and killed dozens of government soldiers while taking others captive.
Mr Rahman claimed that "up to this moment, not a single regime soldier has reached any area controlled by the regime."
"There are still missing people aside from those killed and captured, but none of them have reached any regime checkpoint."
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