Syria said Wednesday its counteroffensive has pushed back insurgents attempting to advance to the strategic central city of Hama, while the insurgency says it captured more Syrian troops and Iran-backed militants in fierce battles.

Rebels and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor said insurgents had captured villages including Maar Shahur a few miles north of the city. Syrian state media said reinforcements were arriving in the area.

Syrian rebel forces arrived at the gates of the key city of Hama on Tuesday, as their fighting with the military sparked "a large wave of displacement", a war monitor

The retaking of Aleppo marks the first major development in years in Syria's grinding civil war, which had largely fallen from the world's headlines. It also raises fresh questions about the opposing sides,