Syrian regime forces on Sunday seized a dozen villages and small towns as they pressed an offensive in the country’s northwest against the last major rebel bastion, a war monitor said. Backed by Russian air strikes, government forces have kept up the assault on the Idlib region and areas of neighbouring Aleppo and Latakia provinces since December. On Sunday, they captured 13 villages and small towns north and northwest of the city of Aleppo, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
