other rebel-held areas in the past, and risk dragging them into the rebel camp. Rebels who had taken the predominantly Christian areas, among them Jdeydeh
Obeidi as well as large areas of Akkas gas field. Army Brigadier-General Numaan Abdul-Zobai said that they also captured villages of Rafedah and Al-Kasim
later on 25 October, clashes occurred in the northwestern town of Maarat al-Numaan in Idlib province between loyalists and defected soldiers at a roadblock
of the castle, the Muslim garrison feared a fate like that of Maarat al-Numaan which was still fresh in the memory of Syrians, and offered to surrender