Foreign-backed militants fighting claim to have taken control of a military airbase in Idlib but government forces reject the capture claims, saying they abandoned the premises.
Online videos show groups of militants wandering through evacuated buildings and streets inside and outside Taftanaz military airbase on Friday.
Syria government sources, however, say the militants entered the base after government troops left it according to an army evacuation order a few days ago and that all important military equipment deployed there as well as officers, pilots and soldiers were evacuated before the arrival of militants.
It is believed that the Syrian army has left behind only useless military equipment and weapons.
An opposition watchdog also said that the Syrian military had removed all its helicopters from the base, except for 20 which were no longer in working condition.
Meanwhile, talks between the UN-Arab League envoy to Syria, Lakhdar Brahimi and senior American and Russian officials at the UN headquarters in Geneva on Syria crisis ended without a breakthrough.
A joint statement read by Brahimi after the meeting said that all sides had stressed there could be no military solution to the Syrian unrest and stressed the necessity to reach a political solution.
Syria has been experiencing unrest since mid-March 2011. Many people, including large numbers of security personnel, have been killed in the violence.
The Syrian government says that the chaos is being orchestrated from outside the country, and there are reports that a very large number of the militants fighting the Syrian government are foreign nationals.
Several international human rights organizations have accused foreign-sponsored militants of committing war crimes.
HM/HGH
