Syrian rebels fighting president Bashar Assad's troops have made advances in the country's north after capturing a strategic neighbourhood near Aleppo's airport, activists said today.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said rebels captured the Sheik Said area south-east of the embattled Syrian city today after several days of fierce battles with Assad's troops.

It is a significant blow to regime forces because the captured area includes a major road, linking Aleppo with the airport. The army has used the road to supply troops, fighting rebels for control of the city that is Syria's largest urban centre.

The government controls parts of Aleppo, but the rebels have captured several neighbourhoods and large swathes of land outside the city since it became a major front in the civil war last summer.

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