A post on the SOHR’s website contradicted claims made on Syrian state media, which admitted the airbase had been captured but said that government troops had made an orderly withdrawal.
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The air strikes killed at least 26 people, including 12 Islamic State fighters, the British-based Observatory said.
Washington has rejected suggestions from Moscow of cooperating with the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, in the fight against Islamic State, and has warned Syria not to interfere in its air campaign. Syria’s embattled president has acknowledged the losses, saying the army has had to relinquish some areas in the north to be able to better defend core areas seen as more critical to the government.
Syrian government forces have pulled out from Idlib province over the past year following major gains by the rebel coalition.
“Violent explosions” were heard rocking the towns of Foa and Kafraya in the northwestern province of Idlib, as part of a fresh wave of attacks the jihadi rebel groups recently unleashed.
Al-Nusra is a leading member of an alliance of militants and Islamist forces called the “Army of Conquest” that overran the Abu Duhur military airport on September 9.
Nusra Front fighters and their allies began a large offensive against the two villages on Friday, deploying at least seven suicide bombers and firing hundreds of shells into Foua and Kfarya, according to the activists and the Nusra Front’s Twitter account.
Another image reportedly showed a bearded militant posing triumphantly in front of the camera, his foot on a dead soldier.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the mass killing at Abu al-Duhur air base happened a few days ago, citing sources on the ground.
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On Thursday, government air strikes on Raqa city, IS’s de facto capital of a “caliphate” it has declared straddling Syria and Iraq, killed 18 people, including jihadists and civilians.
