Beirut: Syrian government forces backed by militia fighters and warplanes pounded rebel units in Latakia province on Monday in a desperate effort to regain control of towns and villages in President Bashar Al Assad’s ancestral homeland recently lost to an opposition offensive.

Activists said fighting between Al Assad loyalists and rebels was concentrated in the northern suburbs of Latakia city, the provincial capital. The Britain-based Observatory for Human Rights said government troops bombarded rebel positions in the city’s outskirts with artillery as they tried to capture several strategic hilltops. Fighter jets also carried out several air strikes.

State TV said army troops captured one of the hilltop positions known as the Observatory 45. It is a strategic post that is key to both sides because it has a commanding view of the contested surrounding mountains and green plains below. The rebels and opposition groups have not confirmed its capture.

Opposition fighters from several conservative and hardline Islamic groups, including the Al Qaida-affiliated Al Nusra Front, launched their assault on the northern stretches of Latakia province along the Turkish frontier March 21. So far, they have seized a border crossing, several villages and the predominantly Armenian-Christian town of Kassab. They’ve also gained control of an outlet to the sea for the first time since Syria’s uprising began three years ago.

Their push for the area from which Assad’s family hails from appeared to have caught Damascus off guard. Government forces, backed by Lebanese Hezbollah fighters, have recently triumphed against the opposition along the border area with Lebanon, ousting rebels from their border strongholds inside Syria and cutting off supply routes from the neighbouring country.

Syria’s information minister lashed out at Turkey, accusing Ankara of sending foreign fighters across the border to fight Syrian government troops in Latakia.

Hostilities have flared along the Syrian-Turkey border on several occasions during the 3-year-old conflict and last week Turkey shot down a Syrian fighter jet, saying it violated its airspace. Syrian government vehemently denied the claim, with state media saying that the jet was flying in Syrian airspace, 7 kilometres from the border when it was shot down.

Speaking to Syrian state TV late Sunday, the minister, Omran Al Zoabi, said neighbouring Turkey is facilitating the entry of “groups of foreigners, armed to their teeth” into the province.

Turkey, a Nato member, once had good ties with Syria. But the two countries had a falling out over Ankara’s support for the Syrian opposition after an uprising started in March 2011. The revolt started as largely peaceful protests against Al Assad’s rule but gradually turned into a civil war. More than 140,000 people have been killed, activists say, and millions have been forced out of their homes.

In the Latakia offensive alone, more than 1,000 people have been killed and wounded on both sides of the fighting, according to a statement by the Observatory, which has documented the conflict by sending a daily tally of those killed and wounded in the conflict. Among those killed were at least 194 soldiers and Al Assad-loyal fighters and 27 army officers, including a second cousin of the president, Hilal Assad.

More than 128 rebel fighters were also killed in the 10-day battle for Latakia, the Observatory said. The number included 56 foreign fighters.