DAMASCUS, Feb. 3 (Xinhua) -- Dozens of airstrikes were launched on rebel positions in the countryside areas of the provinces of Idlib and Aleppo in northern Syria on Monday, a war monitor reported.

The airstrikes targeted areas in the eastern, western and southern countryside of Aleppo as well as the eastern and southeastern countryside of Idlib, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The Britain-based watchdog said nine people were killed as a result of the airstrikes in the western countryside of Aleppo.

The airstrikes come as part of the wide-scale offensive launched by the Syrian army on rebel positions in the countryside of Idlib and Aleppo in order to secure the main road connecting the capital Damascus in the south with Aleppo in the north.