Fighting intensifies in Syria's north after Assad gains

Fighting is intensifying in northern Syria, where rebels say President Bashar Assad's forces and their Lebanese Hezbollah allies are preparing an offensive after success last week in seizing a strategic town further south.

Battles raged on Sunday near Al-Nubbul and Zahra, two rural Shiite Muslim enclaves outside the commercial hub Aleppo in Syria's north, and intensified in Aleppo itself. "The aim is to use the two villages as forward bases to make advances in Aleppo and its countryside," said Brigadier General Mustafa Al-Sheikh, a rebel commander and former officer in the Syrian army. (Reuters)