Syria Army Seizes Idlib Stronghold, Rebels Kill 22 Soldiers

Syrian military forces have recaptured the northern rebel stronghold of Idlib along the border with Turkey, a major base that army defectors had held for months, a pro-government newspaper reported Tuesday.

Fresh from a month long campaign that drove rebels out of another key base in central Homs, President Bashar Assad's forces launched a siege on the city of Idlib three days ago. The city had been under control of hundreds of fighters for the rebel Free Syrian Army.

There was no immediate confirmation of the report on Idlib and calls to the area were not going through. Witnesses said this week that army defectors in the city have been running out of ammunition.

Many feared the offensive in Idlib could end up like the regime's campaign against the rebel-held neighborhood of Baba Amr in the city of Homs. Troops besieged and shelled Baba Amr for almost a month before capturing it on March 1.

Also in northern Syria, the activist groups Local Coordination Committees and the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported intense clashes between government troops and army defectors in the town of Maaret al-Numan, in Idlib province, on Sunday night.

The LCC said four civilians were killed in government forces shelling while the Observatory said 10 government troops were killed when their checkpoint was attacked by defectors.

Rebels also killed 12 members of Syria's security forces in an ambush on Tuesday in the southern region of Daraa.

"Twelve members of the security services headed for the town of Dael to carry out arrests were killed at 10:00 am (08:00 GMT) when their vehicle was ambushed by a group of armed deserters," said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

In Geneva, the U.N. refugee agency said 230,000 Syrians have fled their homes since the uprising against Assad's regime began last year. The U.N. says more than 7,500 people have been killed in the past 12 months.

The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees' coordinator for Syria says 30,000 people have already fled to Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan and "on a daily basis hundreds of people are still crossing into neighboring countries."