The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which is based in Britannia but gleans its information from a wide network of activists and medics on the ground, said Al-Nusra
...the current nom de guerre of al-Qaeda in the Levant, which isn't to be confused with al-Qaeda in Iraq and the Levant...
Front attackers also captured more than 100 regime soldiers.
"There were at least 100 dead on the regime side and 80 among the attackers, killed in festivities, bombardments and by mines," Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman said.
He said at least 120 soldiers were taken prisoner and about another 100 fled south in vehicles and on foot towards the town of Morek in the neighboring province of Hama.
Seizing the key Wadi al-Deif and Hamidiyeh military posts on Monday also gave the jihadists control of most of the northwestern province, in a major blow to
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneckal-Assad
Oppressor of the Syrians and the Lebs...
's regime.
The jihadists advanced on the bases in coordination with Islamist rebel groups Ahrar al-Sham
...a Syria jihadi group made up of Islamists and salafists, not that there's that much difference, formed into a brigade. They make up the main element of the Islamic Front but they don't profess adoration of al-Qaeda and they've been fighting (mainly for survival) against the Islamic State. Their leadership was wiped out at a single blow by a suicide kaboom at a crowded basement meeting in September, 2014...
and Jund al-Aqsa, the Observatory said, adding that a string of villages in the area also fell.
It was also another defeat for Western-backed rebels who were driven out of most of Idlib last month by Al-Nusra Front fighters.
Mainstream rebel forces had been battling to take Wadi al-Deif and Hamidiyeh for around two years, but despite repeated attempts had failed to do so.
Idlib was among the first provinces to fall, soon after the March 2011 outbreak of the armed revolt against Assad's rule.
