BEIRUT: Hard-line rebels captured a small town in northwestern Syria near the Turkish border as part of their offensive in the rugged coastal region that is a bastion of support for President Bashar Assad, activists said Monday.

Fighters from an array of armed opposition groups seized the predominantly Armenian Christian town of Kassab on Sunday.

The rebels, including militant from the Al-Qaeda-affiliated Nusra Front, have also wrested control of a nearby border crossing to Turkey.

Meanwhile, a cousin of Syrian President Bashar Assad was killed on Sunday in battles with rebels near the border with Turkey, activists and state media said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Hilal Assad, local head of the National Defense Force militia, and seven of his fighters were killed in clashes with the Nusra Front and other brigades.

State television confirmed Assad’s death, describing him as the head of the National Defense Force in the coastal province of Latakia, where the Assad family originates.

Rebels launched their offensive on Friday in Latakia province, which is the ancestral home of the Assad family and a stronghold of his minority Alawite sect, the Shiite offshoot community that is a main pillar of support for his rule. Since then, the fighting has focused around Kassab and the nearby border crossing.

Rami Abdurrahman, the director of the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said rebels were in control of the center of Kassab on Monday but that clashes were raging in the hills outside of town.

Human Rights Watch said the Assad government has continued its sweeping aerial campaign against opposition-held areas of Aleppo in defiance of the UN resolution.