DARAA, Syria — A string of rebel-held locations in southern Syria passed into regime control Sunday as the government regained more ground under Russian-brokered deals, a war monitor said.

Talks involving rebels, local officials and regime ally Russia saw agreements struck for four villages and a strategic town near the border with Jordan, extending government control to some 60 percent of the southern Daraa province, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Since June 19, Russia-backed regime forces have ramped up bombardment against opposition fighters in southern Syria as Damascus pushes to retake the area.

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A ceasefire deal meant that a tentative calm reigned over most fronts in the region from Saturday evening, butclashes in one area took the lives of at least 17 rebels and regime fighters, Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman said.

The Daraa region borders Jordan and Israel’s Golan Heights and is considered to be the cradle of the uprising against President Bashar Assad seven years ago that sparked the civil war.

The regime has chipped away at rebel-held territory in Daraa since ratcheting up the violence almost two weeks ago, with Russia stepping in to oversee a string of deals to retake towns from the embattled rebels.

The agreements Sunday covered four villages and the town of Bosra al-Sham, meaning that regime forces were now within 7 kilometers (4 miles) of the Jordanian border, the Britain-based Observatory said.

An AFP correspondent outside Daraa city — part of which is held by