"At dawn, 21 fighters from the regime forces or allied militia were killed in an attack by Ansar al-Tawhid jihadists," the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
"Five jihadists were also killed," Rami Abdel Rahman, the director of the Britannia-based monitoring group, said.
Ansar al-Tawhid has ties to the larger Hurras al-Deen group, which is also active in the area. Both are considered semi-officials franchises of al-Qaeda in Syria.
The area of Idlib and small parts of the adjacent provinces of Hama and Aleppo are mostly controlled by the rival Hayat Tahrir al-Sham
organization.HTS is led by fighters who formerly belonged to al-Qaeda's ex-affiliate in Syria.
Sunday's deadly attack was carried out against regime positions in the village of Masasna, in the north of Hama province, the Observatory said.
"It was one of the highest casualty figures among regime ranks since the Putin-Erdogan deal," Abdel Rahman said. He was referring to an agreement reached in the Russian resort of Sochi between Russian President Vladimir Putin
...President-for-Life of Russia. He gets along well with other presidents for life. He is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from poisoning by polonium or other interesting substance. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to him. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead from poisoning by polonium or other interesting substances...and his
... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him. It's a sin, a shame, and a felony to insult the president of Turkey...Under the September 17 deal,
...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire....
was supposed to exert its influence over anti-regime groups in the Idlib region to get them to pull back their fighters and heavy weapons from a demilitariZed zone.
The agreement was meant to stave off a planned offensive by the regime and its Russian backers that aid groups feared could spark the eight-year-old Syrian conflict's worst humanitarian crisis yet.
The government assault on the last major bastion of forces opposed to Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir
Pencilneckal-Assad
Leveler of Latakia...
's rule has indeed been held off but the deal's provisions have not been implemented and the de facto truce looks shakier than ever.
Since the Sochi agreement, HTS has consolidated its grip on the Idlib province and Turkey appears to be in no position to deliver on its commitment.
Breaches of the demilitarized zone have spiked in recent days. Another 20 regime and allied forces were killed in three days of festivities about a week ago.