Over 100 troops, pro-regime militia, jihadists and rebels have been killed in four days of fierce fighting on a strategic front of Syria's Aleppo province, AFP reports.
Since Sunday, fighting around Al-Eis and Khan Touman in Aleppo's southern belt has killed 61 rebels and members of Al-Qaeda-affiliated Al-Nusra Front and 50 troops and pro-regime militia, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
"In the past 24 hours alone, 42 rebels and Al-Nusra members died, as well as 34 regime loyalists," Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman said.
Regime troops are trying to recapture Al-Eis, held by Al-Nusra and rebel allies, which in turn have launched an offensive to take over nearby Khan Touman from the regime.
The fighting came as UN-brokered indirect talks resumed in Geneva, threatening to break a fragile six-week truce that was brokered by the United States and Russia.