Rebels turn its tanks on Syrian regime

Syrian rebels used captured army tanks to attack an air force base north of Aleppo on Thursday as they sought a strategic victory by depriving the regime of its ability to target opposition positions from the air.

Free Syrian Army gunners fired from five tanks in a massed attack on the Minakh base near the Turkish border, in one of the first recorded uses of heavy weapons by the revolutionaries.

The base has been used by the Assad regime for air strikes and helicopter gunship attacks against rebel positions in Aleppo, where a fierce fight for control of Syria's second city has been raging for a week.

Although the rebels failed to capture the base during their initial attack in the early hours of yesterday, a fighter who identified himself as Capt Kim said: "We will keep going back until we beat them."

The fall of the Minakh base, 30 miles outside the city, would deny the regime a significant part of its armoury and could also allow foreign governments to fly in shipments.

Opposition activists yesterday claimed that more than 35 people, mostly unarmed civilians, were killed in clashes on the outskirts of Damascus. There was no independent verification of the accounts.