BEIRUT — Syrian government forces bombed a strategic rebel town in the country's north for the third straight day Saturday, pounding it with airstrikes that killed at least three people, activists said. President Bashar Al-Assad's troops have in recent weeks seized the momentum in the civil war, now in its third year, and have been on offensive against rebels on several fronts, including in the northern Idlib province along the border with Turkey. In Idlib, government forces this week besieged the town of Saraqeb, hitting it with rockets, tanks and air raids, said the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. On Saturday, the group said military aircraft dropped at least 15 makeshift bombs, known as barrel bombs, on the town. The bombs are made of hundreds of pounds (kilograms) of explosives stuffed into barrels. Meanwhile, an airstrike by a fighter jet killed at least three people, including two children, said the Observatory, which relies on reports from a network of activists on the ground. The number of casualties was likely to rise because many of the people have been buried in the rubble of buildings that collapsed in the shelling, the Observatory added. Assad's troops are in firm control of the provincial capital, also called Idlib, while dozens of rebel brigades control the surrounding countryside. – AP
