Tens of trapped Syrian soldiers fled a facility besieged by the Al-Qaeda-linked militants in a northwestern Syrian city near the Turkish borders, a monitor group reported Friday.

Tens of government soldiers, who were trapped inside the National Hospital at the southeastern outskirts of Jisr al-Shughour city, fled the facility as the Syrian forces were fighting intense battles just meters away from the hospital to break the trapped soldiers out.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the Syrian army backed by Shiite fighters were fighting to advance toward the hospital to break free the trapped soldiers, who were stuck inside the facility since the Nusra Front militants captured the city of Jisr al-Shughour in late April.

Over the past month, the militants staged several blasts and suicide bombings at the gates of that big hospital in a bid to storm it and capture the soldiers, however, their attempts were rendered flat as a result of the strong defenses inside the hospital and the Syrian airstrikes which repeatedly targeted the militants' positions around the hospital to keep them from storming it.

The Observatory said Friday that the fate of the soldiers who managed to escape is still unknown, as they were trying to reach the back-up forces, which were fighting from different directions to reach the hospital.

The official Syrian media has yet to comment on the news emerging from Jisr al-Shughour.

On May 6, President Bashar al-Assad vowed that his forces will reach the trapped soldiers in Jisr al-Shughour's national hospital and his forces have reportedly unleashed a counter-offensive to recapture that key city.

Jisr al-Shughour has its significance due to its location near the Turkish borders.
The militants' capture of Jisr al-Shughour could facilitate offensives into Assad's coastal strongholds as well.