Rebels seize keytown; toll hits 40,000

Rebels seized the eastern Syria town of Mayadeen yesterday, the latest in a series of strategic advances, as the number of people killed in the increasingly violent conflict passed the 40,000 mark.
Defeated government troops fled from Mayadeen to a military airport near the main eastern city of Deir Ezzor, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
The rebel Free Syrian Army said in an email to AFP that insurgents had captured an important military base on the edge of Mayadeen.
The oil and gas-rich province of Deir Ezzor is home to Sunni Muslim tribes whose ties extend across the border into Iraq.
Despite its battlefield losses, most oil and gas fields in the large desert province remain still under regime control, said the Britain-based Observatory, which relies on a network of activists, lawyers and medics on the ground.i
More recently, rebel fighters last Sunday captured Base 46, a sprawling army base in northern Syria after weeks of intense fighting with regime forces.