MISHERFEH, Syria (AP) — Syrian forces on Thursday bombarded rebel positions with artillery and warplanes in the Mediterranean coastal province of Latakia, trying to push back opposition fighters who over the past week made rare territorial gains in President Bashar Assad’s ancestral heartland.

Government troops have been battling for days with the rebels from several Islamic groups, including the al-Qaida-affiliated Nusra Front, that launched the offensive in the province a week ago. They seized a number of towns, a border crossing with Turkey and — for the first time in the 3-year-old conflict — a tiny stretch of coast giving the rebels an outlet to the Mediterranean Sea.