Al-Qaeda's Syria affiliate and allied jihadists advanced on a set of strategic hilltops held by pro-regime forces in the north on Monday, a monitoring group said.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the militants battled government loyalists and briefly seized one of three hilltops in the Al-Eis area south of Aleppo city.
"The pro-government fighters pushed them back, but there are still fierce clashes as the fighters from Al-Nusra Front, Jund al-Aqsa, and other groups try to advance," Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP.