SYRIAN troops have broken a months-long rebel siege on two key military bases in the northwestern province of Idlib, killing at least 21 opposition fighters, activists say.
"Regime forces managed to lift the siege on the Wadi Deif and Hamdiya military camps after the army went around the rebel fighters and attacked them from behind," the opposition British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Sunday.
At least 21 rebels were killed in the attack, which focused on the village of Babulin, the group said.
Troops "now control two hilltops on either side of the Damascus-Aleppo international highway" reopening a supply route for the army, Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman said.
Rahman said two military trucks carrying materiel and soldiers have since been spotted passing through the area for the first time in months.
The area is in the countryside near the strategic town of Maaret al-Numan, which fell to rebel forces last October.
Rebels began blocking military supply routes north and to the nearby Wadi Deif and Hamdiya army bases after they seized Maaret al-Numan, which lies on the Damascus-Aleppo highway.
Elsewhere in the country, the Observatory reported air raids on the al-Hajar al-Aswad suburb of southern Damascus, as well as continued shelling of the Daraya suburb, where regime forces have been struggling to oust rebels.
Violence throughout Syria killed 138 people on Saturday, according to a tally from the Observatory, which says it relies on a network of doctors and activists on the ground for its figures.
Syrian opposition activists meanwhile say President Bashar al-Assad's forces destroyed the minaret of the historic Omari mosque in Daraa, where Syria's uprising erupted two years ago.
In amateur video footage the activists uploaded to YouTube, the mosque can be seen at the end of a street, its towering minaret toppling over after apparent shelling and crumbling into rubble and dust.
Other videos posted online show the mosque, which is thought to date back to the 7th century, had been targeted in shelling for several days.
"This regime of unrestrained barbarism targeted with tanks the minaret of the Omari mosque, a place full of symbols of civilisation and spirituality and humanity," said the opposition Syrian National Council.
"The minaret of this mosque, which was build by Caliph Omar bin al-Khattab, is the first in the whole of the Levant, and has been destroyed by the soldiers of the tyrant," it added, referring to President Assad.
As Syria's conflict continues into a third year, an increasing number of the country's key heritage sites, both religious and cultural, are being damaged in the fighting.
Syria has six sites inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage list.
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