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As many as 22 Syrian soldiers and rebel militants were killed on Sunday during intense battles in the countryside of Hama province in central Syria, a war monitor reported.
The rebels launched a wide-scale offensive on the Syrian forces in the village of Tanjara in the al-Ghab Plains in the northern countryside of Hama after midnight, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
The Britain-based watchdog group said 15 government soldiers were killed in addition to seven rebels of the Ansar al-Deen group.
The Syrian forces are trying to regain what it lost by heavily shelling the area and other rebel-held areas in the nearby southern countryside of the northwestern province of Idlib.
The Observatory said the death toll could likely rise due to the number of critically wounded people. It added that the death toll is the largest since a Russian, Turkish-backed cease-fire was established in Idlib on March 5.
