Syrian rebel groups allied with Al-Qaeda fighters fought Wednesday to advance on a key military headquarters near President Bashar al-Assad's coastal heartland, an activist group said.

The Islamist rebels, including fighters from Central Asia and Chechens, as well as militants from Syria's Al-Qaeda branch, were pressing an advance on the village of Jureen, Rami Abdel Rahman, director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, told AFP.

Assad's regime has been at war against different rebels groups for the last four years, in a conflict that has so far killed at least 230,000 .

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