Government troops capture rebel town

Damaged buildings are seen in Yabroud town, Syria.

Syrian Government troops have seized the last rebel stronghold on the border with Lebanon.

The capture chokes off a vital supply line for the insurgency.

The capture of Yabroud is the latest in a series of steady advances by the regime that, on the third anniversary of the conflict, is tipping the military balance in its favour.

The Syrian Army, backed by the Lebanese militant group Hizbollah, entered Yabroud on Sunday night NZT, pushing all but the most diehard rebels to the outskirts.

For more than a year, Yabroud was the last major opposition-held town in Qalamoun province, west of Damascus.

Weapons and food supplies flowed through Yabroud from Lebanon and were smuggled to rebel pockets in Homs and the capital that were barely surviving under Government sieges.

The town was also home to tens of thousands who had fled fighting in Damascus, Homs and Qusair.