Turkey-backed opposition retakes key Syria town

Turkey-backed Syrian opposition fighters on Thursday retook a strategic northwestern town in Syria that was recently captured by government forces, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition war monitoring group, said.

The retaking of Saraqeb which sits on the highway is a setback for Syrian President Bashar Assad's forces who have scored major gains in a weeks long Russian-backed campaign in the last rebel stronghold in Idlib province.

The opposition used heavy artillery and missiles shelling on Aafs village and was able to reach the outskirts of Saraqeb.

The Observatory added that the rebels cut the highway linking the capital, Damascus, with the northern city of Aleppo, days after the government reopened it for the first time since 2012.

The government offensive has displaced almost 950,000 people and left hundreds of civilians dead.