The flare-up came as Russian-backed regime forces tried to retake two villages seized by jihadists and allied rebels earlier this month, the Britannia-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
"Since this morning, the Syrian regime and allied fighters have launched five failed attempts to regain control of Jibine and Tal Maleh in northwestern Hama province," said Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman.
Syrian regime air strikes killed nine jihadists and rebel fighters, the war monitor said.
Ensuing festivities in the north of Hama province left 26 pro-regime forces dead, including eight who were killed in a mine explosion, the Observatory said.
In neighbouring Idlib, regime air strikes killed 10 civilians, including three children, the Observatory said.
The strikes hit the towns of Maaret al-Numan and al-Bara as well as the village of al-Ftira, according to the war monitor.
The Idlib region of some three million people is supposed to be protected from a massive regime offensive by a buffer zone deal that Russia and
...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire...
signed in September.
But it was never fully implemented, as jihadists refused to withdraw from a planned demilitarised zone.
In January, the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, formerly al-Nusra, before that it was called something else
...al-Qaeda's Syrian affiliate, from which sprang the Islamic State...alliance led by Syria’s former Al Qaeda affiliate extended its administrative control over the region, which includes most of Idlib province as well as adjacent slivers of Latakia, Hama and Aleppo provinces.