- City Fajr Shuruq Duhr Asr Magrib Isha
- Dubai 04:25 05:43 12:19 15:46 18:50 20:09
Red Crescent staff run for cover after Syria's air force hit the town of Douma, northeast of Damascus, where they were distributing aid parcels along with a UN team on May 24, 2014. Syria's air force struck the besieged rebel-held town as UN and Red Crescent workers distributed aid there, a monitor and activists said. Douma is in the Eastern Ghouta area of Damascus province, where rebels are under siege and residents suffer terrible humanitarian shortages. (AFP)
Syria's Al Qaeda branch staged four suicide bomb attacks on army positions Sunday, leaving dozens of casualties, in a bid to cut off Idlib province from the coast, a monitoring group said.
"Four Al Nusra Front fighters carried out suicide attacks this morning, driving vehicles packed with explosives into four regime forces' checkpoints in the Jabal Al Arbaeen area near Ariha city," said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
The Britain-based group said that dozens of troops were killed or wounded, without giving specific figures.
Fierce fighting broke out in the area, pitting army troops backed by pro-regime militia against rebels and jihadists, said the Observatory.
The air force also struck the area, killing two rebels and wounding another 15, it added.
The army controls the cities of Idlib and Ariha in Idlib province of northwest Syria, but much of the countryside is under rebel control.
Ariha lies on the road from Idlib to Latakia on the Mediterranean coast, the heartland of President Bashar Al Assad's regime.
The rebels are "determined to cut off the road before the presidential vote" on June 3 that is to be contested only in regime-controlled areas, according to the Observatory.
The opposition and its Western backers have condemned as a "farce" the election in which Assad is expected to stroll to victory.
Follow Emirates 24|7 on Google News.