Jihadist-led rebels seized Aleppo’s airport and dozens of nearby towns on Saturday after overrunning most of Syria’s second city, a war monitor said, AFP reports.

“Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and allied factions… took control of most of the city and government centres and prisons without meeting great resistance,” the Britain-based war monitor said.

They also overran Aleppo airport after government forces withdrew, and took control of “dozens of strategic towns without any resistance”, it added.

The Observatory reported that the army had pulled out of Syria’s fourth largest city Hama, around 140 kilometres south of Aleppo, in the face of the rebel advance.

But a military source cited by state media denied the army had withdrawn, insisting units were still holding their positions in the rebels’ path.