In early March, Raqqa became the first urban center to fall entirely under rebel control.
Meanwhile, reports of a deadly government strike near a village in the northern province of Raqqa have emerged.
This has given them control of much of the city of Aleppo, Syria's largest, and one provincial capital, Raqqa.
The takeover of Raqqa would mark a major gain for the rebels in their two-year fight against the regime.
BBC: Syria crisis: Raqqa governor held by rebels 'as city falls'
Reports say clashes were continuing in parts of Raqqa, with more troops sent.
BBC: Syria crisis: Raqqa governor held by rebels 'as city falls'
Opposition activists reported fierce clashes around the northern provincial capital of Raqqa and said dozens of people had been killed.
Syrian rebels have captured the governor of the northern province of Raqqa after over-running most its capital city, activists say.
BBC: Syria crisis: Raqqa governor held by rebels 'as city falls'
Only in the last week did the Syrian regime intensify strikes on Raqqa, a city in Syria's interior that is considered ISIS's headquarters.
Syrian warplanes have bombed the northern city of Raqqa, hours after reports said rebels had overrun it, activists and residents say.
The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said the rebels had "near-total control" of Raqqa after days of fierce fighting.
The rebels now control large swaths of northern Syria, and last month captured their first provincial capital, the city of Raqqa.
Amateur video said to be from Raqqa appeared to show Hassan Jalili and another senior ruling party official seated among jubilant armed fighters.
BBC: Syria crisis: Raqqa governor held by rebels 'as city falls'
Terrorists also attacked a bus carrying officers and soldiers along a road between Raqqa and Aleppo, killing one and injuring 42, SANA reported.
Anti-regime protesters, meanwhile, came out onto the streets in several cities including Idlib, Homs, Deir Ezzor, Raqqa, Aleppo and Damascus, according to the LCC.
Pro-regime forces - including those at the provincial airport about 60km (40 miles) from Raqqa - remain a threat, fighters in the city said.
BBC: Syria crisis: Raqqa governor held by rebels 'as city falls'
Warplanes carried out seven raids on Raqqa on Wednesday, killing at least 12 people, including a woman and child, the opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
Rebels had taken control of most of Raqqa but there were still pockets of resistance, including inside the intelligence building in the city, activists said.
Inside Syria, opposition activists said rebels had overrun the northern city of Raqqa, in what would be one of their biggest victories of the conflict.
The Observatory, which relies on a network of activists on the ground, said regime jets also hit the northern city of Raqqa, killing eight people there on Thursday.
In other footage the governor of Raqqa, Hassan Jalili, is shown seated alongside the ruling Baath party's secretary general for Raqqa province, Suleiman Suleiman, also surrounded by rebels.
BBC: Syria crisis: Raqqa governor held by rebels 'as city falls'
Raqqa city is near Syria's northern border with Turkey and residents say it has become home to thousands of people forced to flee their homes in other war-torn parts of Syria.
He spoke via Skype from the eastern city of Raqqa, which in early March became the first provincial capital to completely fall to the rebellion and which is now controlled by Ahrar al-Sham and Jabhat al-Nusra.
The same Islamist coalition including the Nusra Front that claimed the "liberation" of Raqqa also said over the weekend that it was in control of the town of Yarubiyah in Hasaka province, close to the Iraqi border.
The paper, widely seen as close to President Bashar al-Assad, said there was "no urgency" for the army to be dispatched to Raqqa, advocating instead "precision" aerial and rocket strikes against what it called terrorist positions there.
The Raqqa incident comes on the heels of a horrific video showing a man said to be a Syrian rebel carving into the body of a government soldier, cutting out his heart and liver, and putting the heart in his mouth, taking a bite.
On the battlefield, rebels made significant gains in the heavily contested northeastern Syrian, capturing a police academy complex west of Aleppo and storming the central prison in the city of Raqqa, as well as a border crossing along Syria's frontier with Iraq, activists said.
Just as fighting has dwindled in a ravaged zone around the northern town of Idlib near the Turkish frontier, it has popped up in the hitherto quiescent town of Raqqa in the centre of the country, and all along the Euphrates valley to the southeast.
In new video footage opposition activists posted online Saturday, Raqqa's governor and the local head of the governing Baath Party were shown praising the al Qaeda-linked Syrian rebel group known as Jabhat al-Nusra, or Nusra Front, which is part of a coalition of Islamist groups that control most of the province and several areas close to the Iraqi border.
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