http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/16/world/middleeast/2-military-bases-in-syria-fall-to-rebels.html 2014-12-16 04:41:58 2 Military Bases in Syria Fall to Rebels At least 43 deaths were reported in Monday’s assaults, which were led by the Nusra Front, and at least 15 Syrian soldiers were said to have been captured. === BEIRUT, Lebanon — Two important Syrian military bases in Idlib Province, under rebel siege for two years, fell on Monday to insurgents led by the Nusra Front, the Islamist militant group aligned with The Nusra fighters appeared to have achieved the victory partly by using American TOW antitank missiles they had captured from more moderate antigovernment fighters backed by the United States, another sign that those fighters are struggling to regain the initiative from extremist groups.  In what seemed like a significant strategic loss for According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a group that monitors the fighting through a network of contacts on the ground, the Nusra-led attackers captured at least 15 Syrian soldiers. It said at least 31 soldiers and 12 insurgents had been killed in the assaults. The two bases are important because they sit on a major highway linking the cities of Aleppo, Idlib and Damascus, the capital. If insurgents hold the bases, they could gain an opportunity to interfere with the Syrian military’s ability to supply and reinforce the forces that have been trying to retake Aleppo. The besieged city once was Syria’s commercial center but has been ravaged by the war. The rebels also now could try to choke off supplies to Idlib, one of the few places in the province still under government control. The Nusra Front has emerged as a powerful force in Idlib, intimidating not only Syrian government forces but also rebel factions that do not share its radical Islamic ideology. Last month Nusra militants routed comparatively moderate fighters of the Syrian Revolutionaries Front, one of the recipients of American weapons, including the precision TOW missiles. The missiles can blast through tanks and other armored weapons. Photographs “The TOWS that were used in this battle were from the Americans,” he said.