Activists: Syria airstrikes kill 4 in 1 of last rebel-held towns on Lebanese border frontier

BEIRUT – Activists say that Syrian airstrikes have killed at least four people in the town of Zabadani, one of the last rebel-held towns on the Lebanese border.

Activist Ammar al-Hassan says the strike occurred early Wednesday. He says shelling also had increased on the town lying in the rugged hills of the Qalamoun region. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights also reported on the strikes.

Zabadani protrudes into the Bekaa Valley in eastern Lebanon. The town and the nearby community of Madaya are effectively the last rebel strongholds in the Qalamoun, serving as an opposition supply route.

Syrian forces, bolstered by fighters from the Lebanese Shiite militant group Hezbollah, have taken other border towns in a campaign that began in November.