Syrian jets bombard plain after rebel attack: monitor

[WorldNews]

The Syrian air force bombarded a plain in the northwest of the country, a group monitoring the war said on Wednesday, after insurgents launched an offensive to advance deeper into government-held areas vital to President Bashar al-Assad. The insurgents are seeking to drive into the Sahl al-Ghab plain, an area crucial to the defense of the western coastal mountains that are part of the heartland of Assad's Alawite sect as well as lying close to Hama city to the southeast. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which tracks the conflict using contacts on the ground, said Syrian warplanes had carried out more than 160 air strikes on the plain and in the nearby Idlib countryside to try to disrupt the insurgents' progress toward Assad territory.

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