According to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights rebels used a captured tank on Thursday to shell the base.

"Menagh military airport was bombarded on Thursday morning by a tank captured previously by the rebels," the activists group said of the base, which is 30 kilometers (18 miles) northwest of the country's commercial capital, Aleppo.

The attack came as activists reported that at least 35 people, mostly civilians, were killed when regime troops raided and shelled Damascus' southern suburbs of Yalda and Jdaidat Artouz overnight.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights put the number of dead slightly higher, claiming victims were tortured and executed. Thursday's death toll could not be independently confirmed.

"Regime forces entered the Jdaidat Artouz district on Wednesday and arrested around 100 young people who were taken to a school and tortured," the watchdog said in a statement.

"On Thursday morning after the operation the bodies of 43 people were recovered. Some of them had been summarily executed."

Syria's state-run news agency SANA confirmed the raid on Thursday. SANA said the military had entered the capital the previous evening, killing and arresting "a number" of militants.

"Dozens of terrorists and mercenaries surrendered or were killed," when the army raided Jdaidat Artouz and its surrounding farmlands, the news agency reported.

Although a rebel assault on the capital was suppressed two weeks ago, observers say many areas remain sympathetic to rebel fighters.

Three million need aid

According to a report issued by UN agencies on Thursday, three million Syrian's are currently in need of food, crop and livestock assistance as a result of the ongoing conflict.

That figure included 1.5 million Syrians who "need urgent and immediate food assistance over the next three to six months." In particular need where those in areas that had seen the greatest conflict and internal displacement, the report said.

The report was based on a survey by the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization, the World Food Programme and Syria's agriculture ministry, which was carried out last month.

It said "large numbers" of rural Syrians who earn their livelihood by farming and raising livestock have "totally or partially" lost assets and resources related to their business during the 17-month uprising.

With a total population of around 22 million, the survey's authors estimate that around 30 percent of Syria's rural population is "at real threat."

ccp/ipj (AP, AFP, Reuters)