BEIRUT — The Syrian army has recaptured the northern rebel stronghold of Idlib near the Turkish border, a major base that military defectors had held for months, a pro-government newspaper and an activist group said Tuesday.

The three-day operation to capture Idlib gives the regime some momentum as it tries to crush the armed resistance. But it also fed international condemnation. The Arab League chief said the regime’s killing of civilians amounts to crimes against humanity and he called for an international inquiry.

New York-based Human Rights Watch said troops have planted land mines near its borders with Turkey and Lebanon along routes used by people fleeing the violence and trying to reach safety in neighboring countries. HRW said its report was based on accounts from witnesses and Syrian deminers and that the land mines have already caused civilian casualties.

“Any use of anti-personnel land mines is unconscionable,” said Steve Goose of Human Rights Watch. “There is absolutely no justification for the use of these indiscriminate weapons by any country, anywhere, for any purpose.”

In November, a Syrian official and witnesses told The Associated Press that Syria planted land mines along parts of its border with Lebanon. The official claimed at the time that the mines aimed to prevent arms smuggling.

HRW quoted a former Syrian army deminer as saying that in early February, he visited the border town of Hasanieih and found land mines planted “between the fruit trees three meters (yards) from the border in two parallel lines, each approximately 500 meters (yards) long.”

HRW also quoted a resident of the border town of Kherbet al-Joz as saying that for 20 days, until March 1, he saw some 50 soldiers accompanied by two large military vehicles putting land mines starting from Kherbet Al-Joz toward two other villages. Both Kherbet al-Joz and Hasanieih border Turkey in the north.