Islamist groups in Syria including al Qaeda’s Nusra Front have reportedly seized the city of Idlib, dealing a huge blow to the Assad regime.

Social media images purportedly from the northwestern city show
rebels attacking a statue of Bashar al-Assad’s father, Hafez, his predecessor as president.

If the reports from monitors are confirmed, it would be a major gain for the Islamists.

Idlib, its population swollen by hundreds of thousands of people displaced by the war in Syria, is close to the strategic highway linking Aleppo to Damascus and to the coastal province of Latakia, a stronghold of President Assad.

Sunni Islamist groups have formed an alliance which includes Nusra, the hardline Ahrar al-Sham movement and Jund al-Aqsa. They launched the offensive to capture Idlib city on Tuesday.

The Islamist alliance calls its operation Army of Fatah, a reference to the conquests that spread Islam across the Middle East from the seventh century.

Groups taking part in the offens