Syria militants kill 60 soldiers in Idlib: Report

At least 60 Syrian army forces have been killed in an attack by al-Qaeda-linked militant groups on a town in the Arab country’s northwestern province of Idlib, a pro-opposition monitoring group says.

The soldiers lost their lives after al-Nusra Front terrorists and members of several other militant groups launched an offensive on the Syrian town of Jisr al-Shughour, close to the Turkish border, the so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Saturday.

According to the UK-based group, the terrorists stormed Jisr al-Shughour on Saturday, just days after they announced the beginning of their battle to capture the town.

The Syrian troops killed dozens of the militants, who had been trying to infiltrate into the town from Turkey, Syria's official SANA news agency reported, adding that government forces have also regrouped in the suburbs of the town to cut the militants’ supply lines.

Syria has been grappling with a deadly crisis since March 2011. The violence fueled by Takfiri groups has so far claimed the lives of over 222,000 people, according to the observatory.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) says over 7.2 million people have been internally displaced, and more than 3 million fled the country due to the crisis. 

In a Friday statement, the UN Security Council warned against the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Syria, urging all parties to the conflict to put an immediate end to all forms of violence in the country. 

MSM/NT/AS

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