BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syrian troops and allied forces seized an air base in Idlib province on Saturday, pressing their offensive into the country’s largest insurgent stronghold, state television said.

The province in northwest Syria has become a focal point of the war, with government forces taking scores of villages in recent weeks. With the help of Iran-backed militias and Russian air power, they advanced towards Abu al-Duhur military airport, where rebels had ousted the army in 2015.

Since mid-December, fighting has forced more than 212,000 people to flee their homes in the south of Idlib and nearby parts of Hama and Aleppo provinces, the United Nations says.

Ankara has warned the attacks will cause a new wave of migration, urging Russia and Iran to rein in the Syrian army offensive in Idlib, which borders Turkey.

Rebels have held Idlib since 2015, and its population has mushroomed with fighters and civilians escaping offensives in other parts of Syria. It has since become the largest single chunk of the country still under the control of factions fighting President Bashar al-Assad’s state.

Tahrir al-Sham, spearheaded by al-Qaeda’s former Syria branch, is now the dominant insurgent force in the province.

In a broadcast from outside Abu al-Duhur airport, state TV said the military was searching the base for mines and battling insurgents around it.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor, said the army and allied militia took full control of the airport after heavy air strikes against the insurgents.

The troops had stormed the base hours earlier, said a military media unit run by Lebanon’s Hezbollah, which fights alongside the Damascus government. Other pro-government forces seized villages in rural Aleppo, it said.

The army offensive has pushed into Idlib along several fronts from rural Hama to the south and from Aleppo province to the east.

Government forces at opposite ends linked up on Saturday, splitting rebel territory in two, the Observatory and the Hezbollah media unit said. The advance besieged militants near the airport in an enclave, part of it under Tahrir al-Sham control and the other in the hands of Islamic State.

In recent weeks, Tahrir al-Sham had been simultaneously under attack at the corner of Idlib from Islamic State, which has expanded a small pocket of territory in Hama since the army ousted it from central Syria last year.</s>BEIRUT, LEBANON (8:10 P.M.) – The Syrian Arab Army (SAA) scored a major advance in the Idlib Governorate, Saturday, capturing the strategic Abu Dhuhour Military Airport in the eastern part of the province.

Led by the Tiger Forces, the Syrian Army was able to capture the airport after seized several towns located just south of this military installation on Saturday.

Below are some of the first photos from the captured airport; they were taken by field journalists embedded with the Tiger Forces in eastern Idlib.

Since capturing the Abu Dhuhour Airport, the Syrian Army has turned their attention to the city of Abu Dhuhour; it is currently under attack by the Tiger Forces.

SYRIAN ARMY LIBERATES ABU DUHUR AIRBASE, CAPTURE SEVERAL POSITIONS AROUND IT (VIDEOS, MAPS)</s>The Syrian Army and its allied forces have retaken control of the Abu Duhur airbase in Idlib from militants on Saturday, Reuters reported citing a Hezbollah media unit.

The base was lost to militants in 2015. The capture is a significant achievement for government troops as the Syrian Army has been conducting operations against militants in the region since December.

The province of Idlib, which borders Turkey, is mainly controlled by the Free Syrian Army (FSA), other opposition forces and terrorist groups, such as al-Nusra Front, which are fighting against government forces. Clashes between the militants' amid successful offensives of the Syrian Army sometimes result in civilians casualties.

READ MORE: The Operation to Liberate Idlib: Syria's Last Battle

The Syrian civil war has been since 2011, with government forces fighting against both Syrian opposition groups, who strive to overthrow President Bashar Assad, and numerous extremist and terrorist groups such as Daesh and Jabhat Fatah al-Sham.</s>BEIRUT, LEBANON (2:05 P.M.) – The Syrian Arab Army’s (SAA) next offensive will focus on lifting the sieges on Al-Fou’aa and Kafraya in the Idlib Governorate, a military source told Al-Masdar News this afternoon.

According to the military source, several units from the Syrian Arab Army and National Defense Forces have already arrived in the Idlib Governorate for this upcoming offensive; they were not used during the Abu Dhuhour Military Airport operation.

Both Al-Fou’aa and Kafraya are currently under siege by the jihadist rebels of Hay’at Tahrir Al-Sham near the provincial capital of Idlib.

These two towns are predominately populated with Syrian Shiites, who are often the target of sectarian attacks by jihadist groups in the Idlib Governorate.</s>The Syrian Army and militia have encircled a large grouping within Al-Nusra Front in eastern Idlib and have liberated the Abu Duhur airport from jihadists, Russia’s Defense Ministry reported on Sunday.

“Assault troops of the Syrian government forces under the command of General Hassan Suhel, while advancing along the road connecting Hama and Aleppo, have joined the militia units near Herbet al Ghajar and Rasm al Harmal,” the ministry said.

“They have therefore completed the encirclement of a large grouping within the terrorist organization Jabhat al-Nusra [Al-Nusra Front] in the eastern part of the Idlib Province.”

Additionally, during the assault the Syrian Army managed to drive out militants from the Abu Duhur airport, which had been under the terrorists’ control since September 2015, the ministry said.</s>The Syrian Army and militia have encircled a large grouping within Al-Nusra Front in eastern Idlib and have liberated the Abu Duhur airport from jihadists, Russia's Defense Ministry reported on Sunday."Assault troops of the Syrian government forces under the command of General Hassan Suhel, while advancing along the road connecting Hama and Aleppo, have joined the militia units near Herbet al Ghajar and Rasm al Harmal," the ministry said Additionally, during the assault the Syrian Army managed to drive out militants from the Abu Duhur airport, which had been under the terrorists' control since September 2015, the ministry said.</s>BEIRUT, LEBANON (11:50 A.M.) – The area inside and around the city of Abu Duhur is ablaze with gunfire, airstrikes and shelling as elite forces of the Syrian Arab Army fight their way into the strategic settlement.

Despite achieving major gains on Saturday against Islamist militias in the eastern countryside of Idlib province including the capture of 16 towns and villages as well as the Abu Duhur airbase, assault troops of the Syrian Army’s elite Tiger Forces Division are taking no time to rest, now having moved straight on with trying to seize the city of Abu Duhur itself.

Reports from pro-government sources indicate that Syrian troops have actually entered the city under a hail of support fire coming from artillery and warplanes. There exists claims of ‘remarkable’ progress, but it is unclear what exactly that equates to.

In any case, it appears that the Al-Qaeda-linked jihadist groups Ha’yat Tharir al-Sham (formerly Jabhat al-Nusra) and Turkistan Islamic Party are actually making a stand in the Abu Duhur, however, if the Syrian Army has actually breached the outer defense lines and entered the city then Islamist rebels may not be able to hold out for longer than several days unless they are willing to accept encirclement.</s>Moments ago the Syrian Army has created a pocket trapping ISIS and any remaining Al-Qaeda affiliated Al-Nusra fighters in the Idlib axis (southern Idlib countryside-northern Hama countryside-southern Aleppo countryside).This was possible after the Syrian Army captured the Abu Duhur airbase after the majority of Al-Nusra fighters withdrew from the airbase. It is thought, but cannot be confirmed just yet, that most Al-Nusra fighters escaped the Idlib axis before the pocket was created. Details of the capture of the airbase can be read here Now that ISIS are trapped in the pocket, it is expected the Syrian Army will be seeking revenge on the terrorist organization after they beheaded three captured soldiers yesterday. Details can be read here This spells bad news for ISIS as they now have no means to attain new weapons, ammunition and men now that they are besieged in the pocket.</s>Damascus – General Command of Army and Armed Forces said Sunday that it established control over Abu al-Dohour Military Airport in addition to 300 villages and towns in the area expanding from the countryside of Hama, Idleb and Aleppo provinces after destroying the last gatherings of the terrorists there.

The General Command pointed out in a statement; SANA got a copy of, that after a series of successful operations and in cooperation with the allied and supporting forces, the Army established control over the strategic military airport of Abu al-Duhour in the southeastern countryside of Idleb Province.

It clarified that engineering units are dismantling mines and explosives planted by the terrorists in the area.
• Syria’s Rejection to Illegitimate Presence of Any Foreign Forces on Its Territories Reiterated
• Syria still facing threats posed by US, Turkey
• Hundreds of rebels killed in failed Idlib counter-offensive against Syrian Army: opposition sources statistics</s>Syrian troops had been advancing on the northwest province of Idlib (File | AP)

DAMASCUS: Syria's army today announced it had captured the vital Abu Duhur military airport in the country's northwest, more than two years after losing it to rebels and jihadists.

"After a string of special operations, units from our armed forces in coordination with allied fighters succeeded in their military operation and took control of the Abu Duhur military airport in Idlib province," the army said in a statement.

"Engineering units are now dismantling and clearing mines, explosives, and bombs planted by terrorists in the area," he said.

An alliance of jihadists and rebels overran the vast majority of Idlib province in 2015, seizing Abu Duhur in September of that year.

Syrian troops had been advancing on the northwest province of Idlib, and Abu Duhur in particular, as part of a fierce offensive launched in late December with Russian backing.

Regime loyalists have seized dozens of towns and villages as part of the assault, but the air base's capture marks the first military installation Syrian troops have managed to retake in Idlib.

Moscow today confirmed that allied troops were now in control of Abu Duhur.

With its capture, the Syrian army said, troops could now secure a key route leading from the neighbouring province of Aleppo south to the capital Damascus.

Syria's uprising erupted in 2011 with protests against the rule of President Bashar al-Assad, but a government crackdown paved the way for a full-blown civil war.

The government lost swathes of Syrian territory in the first few years of the conflict but, since Russia militarily intervened in 2015, it has steadily regained the upper hand.
The Syrian Army seizes control of the strategic Abu al-Duhur Military Airbase in Idlib Governorate.