Syria rebels kill 28 soldiers, video shows ‘executions’

Syrian rebels killed 28 soldiers on Thursday, a watchdog said, amid a report they beat and executed some of them, as fighting raged on in the country’s northwestern battlefields.

The troops were among at least 150 people killed nationwide -- 40 civilians, 72 soldiers and 38 rebels, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

The clashes came as the main opposition Syrian National Council hit back at US warnings of rising Islamic extremism among rebels, saying the West and its partners were to blame for increasing radicalisation.

And China, amid stalled international peace efforts, said it had made “constructive new suggestions” to end the bloodshed during talks with UN-Arab League peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi.

The 28 soldiers died during attacks on three army checkpoints in northwestern Idlib province, on the main road from Damascus to the embattled city of Aleppo, the Britain-based Observatory said.

Five rebels were also killed in the fighting near the city of Saraqeb in the northwest, which has become a key battleground after rebels seized the town of Maaret al-Numan on the Damascus-Aleppo road early last month.