The most recent fighting focussed on an area straddling Idlib and Hama provinces, a monitor said, and claimed dozens of lives on both sides.

Syrian regime forces seized a town on the edge of Idlib province on Sunday, a monitor said, their first ground advance since resuming an offensive on the jihadist-dominated enclave more than three months ago.

The region of northwestern Syria, which is home to an estimated three million civilians, has come under almost daily Syrian and Russian bombardment since late April.

The most recent fighting focussed on an area straddling Idlib and Hama provinces, a monitor said, and claimed dozens of lives on both sides.

“Regime forces seized the town of Al-Habeet, in Idlib’s southern countryside, at dawn,” Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor, said.

The area has escaped the control of President Bashar al-Assad’s regime since 2015 and is the last major bastion of opposition to his regime and its allies. The capture of Al-Habeet, a key strategic target for pro-regime forces, came after another night of deadly fighting, the monitor said.