Fighting in northern Syria between regime forces and jihadists has killed more than 130, according to a new toll provided Thursday by an NGO, which reports on an offensive launched against government-controlled territory near Aleppo.

The Syrian Defense Ministry said it had blocked a “large-scale attack” still underway. These are the “most violent” clashes in years in this area, where Aleppo province and its territories, in the hands of Bashar al-Assad's regime, adjoin the last major rebel and jihadist stronghold of Idlib, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR).

Villages conquered by jihadists

Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) jihadists, in control in Idlib, launched an “operation” against regime territories on Wednesday, according to the SOHR. The NGO reported villages conquered by the jihadists in western Aleppo province and in a government-held sector of Idlib province.

This fighting, which sometimes takes place less than 10 km from the government-held metropolis of Aleppo, has claimed 132 lives since Wednesday, according to the SOHR. These include 65 HTC jihadist fighters, 18 members of allied groups, and “49 members of regime forces,” said the London-based NGO with an extensive network of sources in Syria. Fighting is also taking place near a highway linking Aleppo to the capital Damascus, which the jihadists are trying to reach to cut off this strategic axis, according to the SOHR.

In a statement, the Syrian Ministry of Defense said that HTC jihadists and their allies had launched Wednesday morning “a broad attack on a wide front with a large number of terrorists using heavy weapons to target villages and localities and military positions.”