Rebels attack air base in northern Syria

This citizen journalism image provided by Edlib News Network, ENN, which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, shows smoke rising from al-Fouaa a Shiite village due to shelling by Syrian rebels, in Idlib province, northern Syria, Thursday, June 6, 2013. Syrian troops and their Lebanese Hezbollah allies captured a strategic border town Wednesday after a grueling three-week battle, dealing a severe blow to rebels and opening the door for President Bashar Assad's regime to seize back the country's central heartland. The regime triumph in Qusair, which Assad's forces had bombarded for months without success, demonstrates the potentially game-changing role of Hezbollah in Syria's civil war. (AP Photo/Edlib News Network ENN)

Human rights activists on Friday said rebels have attacked an air base in northern Syria but failed to capture it.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the fighting concentrated near the command centre in Mannagh air base, under rebel siege for months. It said rebels fired tank shells at the building.

The attack on Mannagh came after Syrian troops backed by Lebanese Hezbollah fighters captured the strategic central town of Qusair near the border with Lebanon on Wednesday.

Aleppo-based activist Mohammed Said said rebels failed to advance in the attack on the air base that continued until early Friday.

Syria’s conflict started with largely peaceful protests against President Bashar Assad’s regime in March 2011 but turned into a civil war.

More than 70,000 people have been killed, according to the United Nations.