Syria rebels withdraw from border town near Turkey

DAMASCUS (Xinhua) - Most Syrian rebels have withdrawn from a northern border town near Turkey as a result of the advancement of Syrian government troops, activists and the state news agency SANA said on Saturday.

The majority of fighters from the al-Qaida-linked Nusra Front and other like-minded groups have withdrawn from Kasab, a strategic town in the northern coastal province of Latakia on the borders with Turkey, SANA said.

The rebels pulled back as the Syrian troops, backed by the Lebanese Hezbollah group, advanced toward Kasab after recapturing areas adjacent to Kasab, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Meanwhile, SANA said government forces had recaptured the town of Nabeen and the entrance of Samra town near Kasab, eliminating a large number of "terrorists".

The rebels stormed Kasab last March and the Syrian government then accused Turkey of facilitating the flow of jihadists through its borders into Syria's Kasab.

The battles in the countryside of Latakia are strategically important as the area is the ancestral home place of President Bashar al-Assad's family and a stronghold of his Alawite minority sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam.

According to UN statistics, more than 100,000 people have been killed and an estimated nine million others driven from their homes since opposition protesters first sought to oust President al-Assad and his government in March 2011.