Syria rebels seize Alawite village, kidnap civilians

Insurgents captured an Alawite village from government control in western Syria on Thursday and abducted civilians living there, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Government forces and their allies were still fighting insurgents nearby after the capture of al-Zara, which lies close to a main highway linking the western cities of Homs and Hama, the British-based monitoring group said.

Several government fighters and a number of the rebels, who included the Al Qaeda-affiliated Nusra Front, had been killed and government warplanes and helicopters were carrying out air raids in and around al-Zara, it said. The insurgents had also captured government fighters.

The truce in the Syrian city of Aleppo expired on Thursday, as a besieged town near the capital prepared to receive its first humanitarian aid in four years. World powers are to meet in Vienna next week to try to push faltering peace talks towards ending the five-year conflict that has killed more than 270,000 people and displaced millions.