Rebels and jihadists battled pro-government forces in the central Syrian province of Hama today as the country's UN envoy warned that more people could be forcibly evacuated from towns besieged by the regime.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said at least 25 civilians, including children, were killed in government air strikes as fighting raged in Hama, south of the opposition-held Idlib province.
Anti-government groups, which include jihadists and Sunni Islamists, launched an offensive in Hama on Monday aimed at retaking its airport, where regime helicopters fly regular sorties against opposition fighters.
"They are about 10 kilometres from the airport" in Hama, Syria's fourth-largest city, said Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman, whose group relies on a broad network of sources inside Syria.
The rebels are also likely seeking to ease pressure on opposition fighters in the battleground second city of Aleppo by distracting regime forces ahead of mooted peace talks, which the United Nations is aiming to restart after a "political initiative" this month.
Syria's UN envoy Staffan de Mistura censured the Syrian government's "strategy" of forcing inhabitants of Daraya - a rebel-held town near Damascus that endured a four-year siege - and warned other towns were likely to experience the same fate.
De Mistura said there were "indications that after Daraya we may have other Darayas," adding that "there is clearly a strategy at the moment to move from Daraya" to other besieged areas "in a similar pattern".
Hundreds of fighters and their families were bused out of Daraya last week, with other civilians transferred to government territory near Damascus for resettlement.
The Syrian army has said it is in complete control of the town, from where roughly 8,000 civilians were still due to be evacuated.
De Mistura pointed to worrying signs around the surrounded towns of Waer and Moadamiyat al-Sham, whose residents make up some of the 590,000 people that the UN says lives under siege in Syria - mostly by government forces.
The Observatory said today that the rebel alliance in Hama seized control of 14 populated areas, mainly in the north of the province, including the towns of Halfaya and Suran.
The alliance also took a military base near the Maardes area, seizing artillery shells and rockets.
They were also threatening the historic Christian town of Mahrada to the west, which is home to one of the country's largest power stations.
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