Syria Rebels Take Aleppo Airport and Attack Hama, Officials and a Monitor Say

Rebel forces advanced in Syria on Sunday amid fierce fighting, capturing the airport of the major city of Aleppo and attacking the outskirts of the western city of Hama, according to local officials and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Government troops loyal to President Bashar al-Assad were trying to repel them, they said.

The rebels had captured much of Aleppo a day earlier in a surprise offensive. They now control a broad swath of land across the provinces of Hama, Idlib and Aleppo, in the west and northwest of Syria, according to information from local officials and the Observatory, a Britain-based war monitor.

The New York Times also observed rebels in control of parts of Hama Province as well as neighborhoods in the east of the city of Aleppo and parts of the countryside beyond it that government forces had held only days earlier.

Government troops were battling to defend the city of Hama from being overrun, according to the Observatory. Syrian government warplanes were also bombing territory that was now held by the rebels, causing civilian casualties, the monitor said.

It said that government forces were receiving support from Russian fighter jets, which were striking targets across the countryside near Hama and Idlib province.

Russia, which is allied with Mr. Assad, has repeatedly come to his aid since early in the civil war that broke out in 2011, after protests over Mr. Assad’s autocratic rule drew a swift and bloody military crackdown. Mr. al-Assad has also counted on military and political support from Iran.