Warplanes of the Syrian government and its Russian allies pounded rebel targets across the country on Saturday, killing scores of people, including inmates at a rebel-held women's prison in the northwestern city of Idlib.
Details of the overnight prison strike remained sketchy Saturday. But monitors from the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the prison dead included 16 prisoners and prison staff. The Observatory said some of the detainees were killed by prison guards as they attempted to flee after the airstrikes.
Separately, monitors said government forces targeted rebel positions east of Damascus, where at least 16 people were killed and 50 others wounded in the town of Hamoria.
The government offensive, described as some of the heaviest fighting in weeks, comes days after rebels seeking to topple the government of President Bashar al-Assad launched a surprise assault on Damascus by burrowing into the capital through tunnels.
Concurrent attacks in recent days to the north targeted Hama province, where insurgents have seized about a dozen towns and villages since Monday. The Observatory said rebels had advanced by Wednesday to within several kilometers of a government airbase outside the city.
But monitors reported Saturday that heavy government rocket fire had forced rebels to withdraw from some of their forward positions.
叙利亚政府的战机和俄罗斯盟军周六对叙利亚各地的反叛武装目标进行猛击，打死几十人，包括西北部伊德利卜市反叛武装控制下的女子监狱的犯人。
有关夜间的监狱袭击细节星期六不甚明朗。但是叙利亚人权了望台的监督员说，死者包括16名监狱犯人和工作人员。该机构说，一些被押犯空袭后因试图逃跑被狱警打死。
此外，监督人员说，政府军把大马士革以东反叛武装的阵地作为攻击目标，那里至少有16人被打死，哈莫里亚镇另有50人受伤。
一些人形容这是几周来政府进行的最猛烈的一次攻势。几天前，试图推翻阿萨德总统政府的反叛武装通过挖通隧道进入首都，对大马士革进行了突袭。
最近几天，北部同时发生了针对哈马省的多起袭击。自星期一以来，那里的反叛分子夺取了大约10几个城镇和村庄。叙利亚人权了望台说，到上周三的时候，反叛武装已经进发到该市郊外政府空军基地几公里之内的地方。
但是，监督员周六说，政府猛烈的火箭炮火迫使反叛分子从他们的一些前方阵地撤离。