A war monitor and state media say that Syrian government forces have launched a counterattack against Islamist-led rebels who were getting close to a Russian-operated airbase after capturing a string of towns and closing in on the key city of Hama.
The government forces' counteroffensive came after a blitz advance over the past several days by the rebels led by Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS). They have captured Aleppo, the country's largest city, as well as 14 central villages and towns, and gotten as close as 35 kilometers from Khmeimim Airbase.
President Bashar al-Assad's regime turned over the air base to Russia in 2015 as Moscow moved in to help Damascus turn the tide of a four-year civil was in its favor.
The Syrian state news agency SANA said rebels on December 4 retreated some 20 kilometers from government-held Hama, Syria's fourth largest city, after government troops backed by Russian air strikes repelled the rebels from the city's outskirts.
Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor said the rebels only withdrew some 10 kilometers.
Hama, which is key to the defense of Damascus, is the gateway to the coastal cities of Tartus and Latakia, the former being home to a strategic Russian naval base.
Besides HTS, the rebels also include an umbrella group of Turkish-backed Syrian militias called the Syrian National Army.
UN Special Envoy for Syria Geir Pedersen, said on December 3 that tens of thousands of civilians have been displaced by the fighting.
