Special to WorldTribune.com

NICOSIA — Sunni rebels have captured a key air base near the Syrian border with Turkey.

Rebels said a coalition of militias seized the Minnig Military Airport, located between Aleppo and Turkey. They said the operation capped an eight-month rebel siege of Minnig, located near the Turkish city of Gaziantep.

“The airport has been fully liberated,” a rebel statement said on Aug. 6. “The remnants of the Assad gangs are now being pursued.”

The capture marked one of the biggest rebel victories amid the offensive by the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad. Since February 2013, the regime’s military, backed by Iran, Russia and militia forces, has rolled back most of the rebel gains achieved over the last year.

The seizure of Minnig was claimed by nine rebel brigades. They included Al Qaida’s Islamic State in Iraq and Levant and the Tawhid Brigades.

For its part, the Assad regime has denied the capture of Minnig. A regime statement said many of the rebel attackers were killed.

“Our armed forces heroes in the Minnig Airport and the surrounding area
are confronting the terrorist with unmatched valor,” the regime said. “The
terrorist groups are taking heavy losses.”

The rebels said Minnig was overrun on Aug. 5 after a Chechen suicide
attacker drove a booby-trapped armored personnel carrier into command
headquarters. They said the bombing killed most of the remaining 60 Syrian
Air Force soldiers in the building.

“Most of the remaining defenders were killed in the suicide attack,”
Mohammed Nour, an opposition activist, said. “The remainder fled on three
main battle tanks, one of which the rebels destroyed.”

Rebels said the capture of Minnig could restore the flow of weapons and
fighters from Turkey to northern Syria. Over the last three months, the flow
has been significantly reduced amid the return of Assad forces, backed by
Hizbullah, around Aleppo.

“This raises morale, but the momentum is still very much with the
regime,” a rebel source said.

  Aleppo, Bashar Assad, Minnig Military Airport, Rebel militias seize Syrian air base near Turkish border