Hi °C | Lo °C Syrian opposition fighters have captured a military airport near the northern city of Aleppo, an opposition organisation said.
The airport is the latest military facility in the region to fall under rebel control.
The Jarrah airbase, 46km east of Aleppo, came under the control of rebel units who have been surrounding it for weeks, and the highway linking Aleppo to the east of the country was in opposition hands, the Sham News Network said.
Video footage showed fighters from the Islamic Free Sham Movement inspecting the airport. Several fighter jets were shown on the ground at the airport and in concrete shelters.
The video footage could not be independently verified.
Abu Abdallah Minbig, one of the opposition commanders at the airport, told reporters that two operational MiG jets and some ammunition were found intact at the base.
"The airport was being used to bomb northern and eastern rural Aleppo. By capturing it, we have cut the regime's supply line from Aleppo to the east," Mr Minbig said.
He said the Syrian army would now struggle to send reinforcements to stop a rebel advance in the adjacent Raqqa province.
Irish Independent
