Blow to Assad: Rebels seize Idlib army base

(MENAFN- Arab News) AMMAN: A coalition of rebels seized an army base in northwestern Syria at dawn on Monday after a suicide bomber from Al-Qaeda's Nusra Front drove a truck packed with explosives into the compound and blew it up.
The capture reported by a rebel commander and social media videos showing militants inside the base brought the coalition closer to seizing most of Idlib province and moving toward Latakia.
The army had been using the Qarmeed camp to shell rebel-held towns and villages in the strategic agricultural region bordering Turkey. Controlling it should help the rebels tighten their siege on the major Mastouma army base nearby.
Syrian state media said the army killed scores of Nusra rebels and dozens of suicide bombers from Russia's Chechnya region in fighting near the base but did not say the compound had fallen to the militants.
"A truck with two tons of explosives penetrated one of the entrances of the camp that made it easier to take over the camp" Sheikh Husam Abu Bakr a rebel commander from Ahrar Al-Sham movement said via Skype.
The coalition of hard-line rebels includes Nusra Ahrar al-Sham and Jund Al-Aqsa but not the rival Islamic State group that controls large tracts of Syria and Iraq. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said two bombers blew themselves up at the gates of the camp.
"This was one of the major bases of the regime in Idlib and had lot of weapons" said Observatory head Rami Abdul Rahman adding at least seven tanks large ammunition caches and scores of rocket launchers were seized by the rebels. That was the second provincial city after Islamic State-controlled Raqqa to fall to anti-Assad rebels since the start of the four-year conflict. On Saturday the coalition captured Jisr Al-Shughour.
Meanwhile in Iraq the terror group said it has stoned two men to death for adultery in the northern province of Nineveh according to a series of photos posted online.
One man is shown kneeling blindfolded in front of a group of men who hurl large stones at him until he is lying face down on the ground blood running from his head. A second man is then killed in the same way as a crowd including children looks on.