BEIRUT — Syrian rebels captured four villages in the heartland of President Bashar Assad’s minority Alawite sect on Monday as they fought government troops for the second straight day in the mountains overlooking the country’s Mediterranean coast.
Opposition fighters also said they captured about 400 villagers and progovernment gunmen in battles in the area.
Alawites, an offshoot of Shi’ite Islam, dominate Assad’s regime. The capture of the villages in the coastal Latakia province was a symbolic blow to Assad, whose forces have been taking territory in recent weeks in central Syria.
Syria’s conflict has taken on an increasingly sectarian tone in the last year, pitting predominantly Sunni Muslim rebels against members of Assad’s Alawite minority.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said rebels captured the villages after attacking government outposts in the Jabal al-Akrad hills on Sunday. The group, which relies on reports from activists on the ground, said at least 32 government troops and militiamen and at least 19 rebels, including foreign fighters, died in Sunday’s fighting.
Syria main’s opposition bloc, the Western-backed Syrian National Coalition, hailed the rebel advance and said that Assad’s troops had used the villages to attack rebel-held civilian areas.
The coalition also charged that regime forces used toxic gas in a chemical weapons attack in the Damascus suburb of Adra on Monday and urged the international community to investigate the attack. The opposition has claimed more than a dozen such attacks across Syria; the latest purported attack could not be independently confirmed.
Last week, the United Nations said chemical weapons experts would depart ‘‘within days’’ for Syria to investigate three specific allegations of chemical weapons use. The UN gave a green light for the investigation following an ‘‘understanding’’ reached between the Syrian government and a delegation from the world organization that visited Damascus last month.
Much of Latakia has been under the firm control of Assad’s forces since the beginning of the conflict more than two years ago, but some areas, including Jabal al-Akrad, are close to rebel-held areas and have seen fighting.
It was a rare success for the rebels on the battlefield in recent weeks. Assad’s forces have been on the offensive since taking the central town of Qusair in June, and last week captured a key district in the central city of Homs, an opposition stronghold.