Syrian rebels advanced further towards government-held Hama city on Wednesday, capturing a town in an offensive that threatens government loyalist areas populated by minority Christians and Alawites north of the city, rebels and a monitor said.

The town of Soran, around 14 km north of Hama on the main Aleppo-Damascus highway, was taken “completely”, the rebel group said in an online statement.

Since launching an offensive on Monday in the northern Hama countryside, the Free Syrian Army (FSA) alliance and other rebel groups have taken a number of towns and villages.

They are pushing south from rebel-held Idlib province into a swathe of government-held land which reaches down to the capital Damascus.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors the five-year conflict, said Soran had been taken and clashes and air strikes between government forces and rebels continue.

Source: Reuters, 1 September 2016