LATEST: Videos — More Deadly Barrel Bombings in Aleppo Province

MONDAY FEATURE

Hilal al-Assad, the head of Syria’s National Defense Forces, was killed on Sunday during insurgent attacks near Kassab on the Turkish border.

Opposition fighters — including the Islamic Front and Jabhat al-Nusra — launched an offensive in Latakia Province last Friday. They took the Kassab crossing, the last one controlled by the regime on the Turkish border, and reportedly moved into the nearby village.

See A Guide to Insurgents’ 2nd Latakia Offensive

The faction Jaish al-Islam, part of the Islamic Front, published a statement on its website: “The first rocket was fired around 7:15 p.m., followed by another five minutes later. The rockets targeted a house where Hilal was holding a meeting with other members of the National Defence Army.”

Unconfirmed claims said Assad’s cousins Ali and Kafeh died in the attack, along with Syrian commanders such as Mihrac Ural (Ali Kiyali), the Turkish Communist who is blamed for the massacre of civilians in Baniyas in Lattakia Province in May 2013.

The National Defense Forces was created in 2012 by the Assad regime to provide tens of thousands of militia in support of the Syrian military.

Insurgents inside Holy Trinity Armenian church in Kassab, which has a large Armenian Christian population:

State TV reporting outside Kassab on Monday afternoon:

Videos: More Deadly Barrel Bombings in Aleppo Province

As Human Rights Watch issues a damning report of the regime’s barrel bombing in Aleppo Province, with claims of at least 2,400 people killed between November and March, videos are posted of airstrikes on Monday.

See Human Rights Watch — Regime Air Attacks Terrorize Aleppo & Kill 2,400 Civilians Since November

Aftermath of an attack on Al-Haidarieh section of Aleppo, which has been repeatedly hit:

Handarat, north of Aleppo:

UN: 500,000 Flee Eastern Aleppo Since Late January

According to the latest report of the United Nations Secretary-General’s office on implementation of resolutions for aid, at least 500,000 people have fled eastern Aleppo since late January.

Circulated to Security Council members, the report said about 200,000 had fled to western Aleppo and 300,000 to the north, with 100,000 sheltering in camps near the Turkish border.

Elsewhere, 50,000 people fled Yabroud, to the north of Damascus, as the city to regime forces this month. About 14,000 are in Arsal in Lebanon.

The report said aid had been distributed to millions, but 3.5 million people are now in “hard-to-reach” areas. Challenges to distribution include unanswered requests for convoys, lack of communications between central Government and units on the ground, continued insecurity, and fighting between insurgents and the Islamic State of Iraq and as-Sham.

Insurgents Attack Air Force Intelligence Base in Northwest of Aleppo City, Claim Death of Top Regime Commander

A 12-minute video celebrating the assault by insurgents, including the mainly-Chechen faction Jaish al-Muhajireen wal-Ansar, on an air force intelligence base in Layramoun in the northwest of Aleppo city:

Other video shows graphic images of slain regime troops.

The insurgent faction Ahrar al-Sham claimed that Brigadier General Samea Yusuf Abbas, the head of the Republican Guard forces in Layramoun, was among those killed.

JMA and other insurgent groups have been moving on Aleppo from the northwest in recent weeks, taking areas such as Kafr Hamra.

(h/t Joanna Paraszczuk)