</s>BEIRUT — Syrian government forces advanced deeper into the southern province of Daraa on Sunday under the cover of air strikes, entering new villages amid reports that the U.S. has told rebels not to expect an American intervention to defend them from the army’s offensive.

Syrian government forces have been on the offensive in eastern parts of Daraa province for the past five days in an operation that aims to reach a main border crossing with Jordan. The push comes two months after government forces regained control of rebel-held eastern suburbs of the capital Damascus that freed thousands of government soldiers for the new battle in Daraa province.

Opposition activists have been reporting that President Bashar Assad’s government has sent some of its elite units to the south including the Republican Guards and the Tiger force that is commanded by Brig. General Suheil al-Hassan who is widely known as Nimr, Arabic for tiger.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and Daraa-based opposition activist Osama Hourani said the U.S. has informed rebel groups in southern Syria that Washington will not intervene in the operations to defend them against the government offensive that is ongoing under the cover of Russian air strikes.

Two U.S. officials discounted the claim. They spoke on condition of anonymity.

Denying the rebels support would be a reversal from earlier pronouncements. The United States warned last month it would take “firm and appropriate measures” to protect a cease-fire in southern Syria if government forces move against rebels there.

“It is clear that since yesterday the Russians and the (Syrian) regime have been given the green light to regain control of Houran,” Hourani said referring to the region that includes Daraa, the nearby region of Quneitra and parts of Sweida province. “The proof is that after the rebels received the (American) message Russian warplanes joined the battle.”

The United States, Russia, and Jordan agreed last year to include Daraa in a “de-escalation zone” and freeze the lines of conflict there. But the area has been tense following a series of recent Israeli strikes on Syrian and Iranian forces. Iran is a close ally of Assad, and its advisers are embedded with his troops.

Bassem Mroue is an Associated Press writer.</s>Syrian troops advance in their offensive in country's south

BEIRUT (AP) — Syrian state media say government forces have advanced deeper into the southern province of Daraa under the cover of airstrikes, entering new villages.

Syrian state news agency SANA said Sunday troops have made territorial gains in al-Lujat and other areas including the village of Jadal on the eastern edge of Daraa province where fighting has concentrated for the past five days.

Daraa-based opposition activist Osama Hourani said thousands of people are fleeing the government offensive, adding that airstrikes have intensified since the early hours of Sunday.

State news agency SANA said that rebels shelled the southern government-held city of Sweida wounding three people in the government offensive on the region that borders Jordan and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.</s>BEIRUT: Syrian regime forces on Saturday made their first gains on the ground against rebel fighters in the southern province of Daraa after several days of intensified bombardment, a monitor said.

Since Tuesday, regime troops have been ramping up shelling on opposition-held areas in Daraa´s eastern countryside ahead of an apparent military offensive against rebels there.

“Regime troops made their first advance in the area since the military escalation on Tuesday, seizing the villages of Al-Bustan and Al-Shumariya in the eastern part of Daraa province,” said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The shelling and clashes are currently focused on a wedge of rebel territory between Daraa´s eastern countryside and the western part of the neighbouring province of Sweida.

The army seems to want to split that wedge into a northern and southern section, Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman said, “to facilitate their operations and increase the pressure on rebel factions, allowing it to advance more quickly.” Syrian state news agency SANA also reported the advance, saying army units edged forwards against rebels in Daraa´s east.

After securing the capital Damascus, Syrian troops have turned to the country´s south, where rebels still hold a majority of the provinces of Daraa and Sweida.

Southern Syria is a particularly strategic zone: it borders both Jordan and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, and also lies close to Damascus. Military reinforcements have been streaming into the south, despite it being designated a de-escalation zone last year where violence is supposed to be reduced.

The Observatory has noted an “ongoing escalation of shelling and clashes in eastern and northeastern parts of Daraa province.” The regime has used air strikes and artillery and has even resumed dropping notorious barrel bombs on Daraa province.

Barrel bombs slammed into the town of Al-Herak on Friday in the first use of the weapon on Daraa in nearly a year, according to the Observatory.

The escalation has left at least 17 civilians dead since Tuesday across rebel areas, according to the Britain-based monitor. Some 12,000 people have been displaced from Daraa province in recent days, the Observatory said.

The United Nations has also warned that increasing violence is putting the lives of 750,000 people in rebel parts of the south at risk.

Even as the regime hints at a looming assault, talks between international brokers may see a negotiated settlement for Syria’s south.</s>Syrian government forces advanced deeper into the southern province of Daraa Sunday under the cover of airstrikes, entering new villages amid reports that the U.S. has told rebels not to expect an American intervention to defend them from the army's offensive.

Syrian government forces have been on the offensive in eastern parts of Daraa province for the past five days in an operation that aims to reach a main border crossing point with Jordan. The push comes two months after government forces regained control of eastern rebel-held eastern suburbs of the capital Damascus that freed thousands of government soldiers for the new battle in Daraa province.

Opposition activists have been reporting for days that President Bashar Assad's government has sent some of its elite units to the south including the Republican Guards and the Tiger force that is commanded by Brig. General Suheil al-Hassan who is widely known as Nimr, Arabic for tiger.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and Daraa-based opposition activist Osama Hourani said that the U.S. has informed rebel groups in southern Syria that Washington will not intervene in the operations to defend them against the government offensive that is ongoing under the cover of Russian airstrikes.

There was no immediate comment from Washington but if true the decision would be a major reversal from earlier pronouncements.

The United States warned last month it would take "firm and appropriate measures" to protect a cease-fire in southern Syria if government forces move against rebels there. The region has also been a source of regional tensions between Iran and Israel in recent months.

"It is clear that since yesterday the Russians and the (Syrian) regime have been given the green light to regain control of Houran," Hourani said referring to the region that includes Daraa, the nearby region of Quneitra and parts of Sweida province. "The proof is that after the rebels received the (American) message Russian warplanes joined the battle."

The United States, Russia, and Jordan agreed last year to include Daraa in a "de-escalation zone" and freeze the lines of conflict there. But the area has been tense following a series of recent Israeli strikes on Syrian and Iranian forces. Iran is a close ally of Assad, and its advisers are embedded with his troops.

Syrian state news agency SANA said Sunday that troops made territorial gains in al-Lujat and other areas including the village of Jadal on the eastern edge of Daraa province.

Russia's Defense Ministry said some rebels have voluntarily joined forces with Syrian government forces adding that Syrian troops repelled an attack by al-Qaida-linked fighters in Daraa.

State news agency SANA said that rebels shelled the southern government-held city of Sweida wounding three people.

The Observatory said government forces reached the rebel-stronghold of Busra al-Harir where fighting is ongoing inside the town.

In an interview aired Sunday, Assad said Syria has not possessed chemical weapons since it got rid of them five years ago and that allegations of their use are a pretext for invasion by other countries. Assad's comments came in an interview with Russia's state-controlled NTV television channel.

"We fully eliminated chemical weapons. We haven't had them in Syria since 2013," Assad said in the interview.

Syria has been charged repeatedly with using chemical weapons in its civil war, most recently in April in the town of Douma. The United States, France and the United Kingdom launched air strikes in retaliation.

"Americans constantly lie and attack immediately," Assad said in the interview.

Assad said reconstructing Syria after the devastation wrought by the war could cost $400, but said "we have enough means to restore our country, we are sure about that" and that funds could be sought from the Syrian diaspora.

Associated Press writer Jim Heintz in Moscow contributed to this report.</s>BEIRUT — Syrian state media say government forces have advanced deeper into the southern province of Daraa under the cover of airstrikes, entering new villages.

Syrian state news agency SANA said Sunday troops have made territorial gains in al-Lujat and other areas including the village of Jadal on the eastern edge of Daraa province where fighting has concentrated for the past five days.

Daraa-based opposition activist Osama Hourani said thousands of people are fleeing the government offensive, adding that airstrikes have intensified since the early hours of Sunday.

State news agency SANA said that rebels shelled the southern government-held city of Sweida wounding three people in the government offensive on the region that borders Jordan and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.</s>Syria: If Daraa falls, could it be the beginning of the end of the civil war?

"Your turn doctor": They don't sound like words that could spark a revolution. But on March 6, 2011 — when a group of boys graffitied those words on a wall at their school in Daraa, Syria — they did.

The 'doctor' the boys referred to was President Bashar al-Assad, and in the months leading up to the graffiti incident, Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak and Tunisian leader Ben Ali had both been forced from office by mass public protests.

Those seemingly innocent words posed the question, could Mr Assad be next, and in the years that followed it appeared he could be.

What started in Daraa has since led to a proxy war, now in its eighth year, that has claimed the lives of more than 500,000 Syrians and displaced almost 12 million.

After losing more than 80 per cent of his country in the first four years of conflict, Mr Assad — with the backing of Russia, Iran and Lebanon's Hezbollah — has been claiming it back town by town.

After brutally reclaiming East Ghouta — a rebel enclave near his capital Damascus — Mr Assad has warned that Daraa is next.

If Daraa falls, it could be the beginning of the end of the Syrian war.

Daraa: The last rebel enclave in southern Syria

Daraa province and its capital of the same name lies on the Jordanian border.

This rebel stronghold that includes parts of Quneitra province stretches all the way to the Golan Heights — an area of Syrian territory held by Israel since the Six-Day War in 1967.

It is the last remnant of opposition to the government in Syria's south.

The US, Russia and Jordan agreed last year to include Daraa as part of a "de-escalation zone", but after dropping leaflets by air across the area warning of an imminent offensive and urging insurgents to lay down their arms, Syrian planes began dropping barrel bombs on populated areas on June 21.

The video below shows the Syrian regime striking the Daraa countryside.

Washington cautioned it would take "firm and appropriate measures" to protect the ceasefire in southern Syria.

But ceasefire agreements and international warnings were no deterrent when the Syrian government launched an offensive on Eastern Ghouta in February.

More than 1,700 civilians were killed in the eight-week offensive.

Evacuation deals saw rebels and civilians put in buses and driven to rebel-held territory in northern Syria.

"We've got more to go but this is irreversible now."

The focus for Damascus is now on rebuilding the economy and resuming foreign trade, a priority which Mr Lister says will put the military focus heavily on regaining Daraa's border crossing with Jordan.

Aside from this southern pocket, the only other significant patches of Syria left outside of government hands are the rebel stronghold of Idlib, Turkish-backed rebel areas surrounding Afrin and the Kurdish region — held by sometimes Assad-allied Kurdish forces backed by the US.

FSA, Islamic State: Who is in control?

The Free Syrian Army (FSA) — a coalition of moderate Islamic and secular rebel groups — holds nearly three-quarters of Daraa province and parts of the provincial capital.

The FSA is frequently at odds with Islamic State, which holds a small pocket of territory in the south.

Islamic State has made several attempts to expand into FSA areas after losing ground to the Syrian government in recent months.

The terrorist group, which once controlled close to half of Syria, including vast desert areas, currently holds only 3 per cent of the country.

Retaking the Nasib border crossing with Jordan, held by rebels since 2015, would reopen crucial trade routes for the regime as it struggles to rebuild.

But any military action could affect the national security of Syria's neighbours.

Jordan is already struggling to deal with well over a million Syrian refugees.

To add to the problems of the Jordanian royal family, demonstrators have been taking to the streets in mass protests over the kingdom's economic problems and plans to tax its citizens.

A strong offensive against these remaining border territories is bound to send a new wave of refugees fleeing in the only direction they can — the Jordanian border.

Internationally, no-one wants to see Jordan destabilise — least of all Israel, which is already in short supply of friendly neighbours.

But Mr Lister said, with the mediation of Russia, the Jordanian government has "already flipped" and has taken on a "better the devil you know" mentality towards Mr Assad on the condition that Russian military police control any recaptured border areas.

Why some say Russia is the key to the crisis

Israel's main concern is the presence of Iranian and Hezbollah troops on Syrian soil.

Syria is technically at war with Israel over control of the Golan Heights, but a ceasefire has largely held since the 1970s.

Last week, Israel reached an agreement with Russia to allow Syrian regime troops to return to the border to combat the rebels on the condition that no Iranian or Hezbollah forces will be stationed in that area.

Abraham Wagner, a Columbia professor and Senior Fellow at the Centre for Advanced Studies on Terrorism, was part of a US government team that negotiated a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hafez al-Assad, before his son took power.

"Israel would be perfectly happy with Assad and a stable government," said Mr Wagner.

But tensions continue to heighten between Israel and Iran with reports of growing Iranian missile bases in Lebanon and Syria.

Israel carried out a wave of airstrikes against Iranian forces in Syria last month.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has expressed disapproval of Iran using its position in Syria to carry out an anti-Israel agenda and called for "all foreign troops" to withdraw from Syria. But Iran responded with anger and defiance.

"The Israelis have their deal with the Russians, they are the key to cleaning this up," Mr Wagner said.

What happens if the 'cradle of the revolution' falls?

Over seven years after the people of Daraa took to the streets, taking back the embattled city — dubbed 'the cradle of the revolution' — would not only consolidate regime power in the south but it would hand Mr Assad a symbolic victory over his enemies.

Mr Wagner believes the Daraa offensive will essentially be "the last act of the war" in Syria.

Speaking on state television last week, Mr Assad said he expected the war to be over in "less than a year", but he also repeated his vow to claim back "every inch" of Syria.

The same day, regime airstrikes in the north claimed the lives of more than 50 people in rebel-held Idlib.

While it seems inevitable that Mr Assad will reclaim Daraa, ousting the Turkish military and its Syrian allies in the north and defeating the rebel fighters who control Idlib does not look likely to happen any time soon.

The largest territory outside of government hands is a vast Kurdish region controlled by the US-backed SDF. But Kurdish leaders, who have retained ties with Mr Assad's government, say their aim is not an independent state, but a federal system with nominal autonomy — a proposal the Syrian government has previously shut down.

While Mr Assad is clearly going nowhere, he is bound to lose large swathes of his territory in the north.

Mr Wagner believes once this "last major clean up" of the critical area of Daraa is over, Mr Assad will begin to "wind down" the fight.

But while we may soon see a de-escalation of the war, Syria's troubles are far from over.

"We're gong to continue to see terrorist treats from Syria for a long time," Mr Lister said, adding that while the situation is "less intense" it's also more complicated.

"If the US leave in the coming months, they will almost certainly have to go back again in the future."</s>Syrian government forces kept up their pressure on the country's strategic southwest Friday, using artillery and airstrikes and dropping barrel bombs that targeted rebel-held parts of the region, activists said.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said more than 12 barrel bombs hit the province of Daraa, in the first use of the rudimentary and non-discriminatory weapons there in over a year when a truce went into effect in the area. Rockets and artillery shells have also targeted northern and eastern Daraa, and there were reports of overnight airstrikes on Busr al-Harir, a northeast Daraa town where government troops are trying to isolate the rebels.

The government campaign in the southwestern Syrian region bordering Jordan and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights comes despite U.S. warnings of "serious repercussions" for anyone violating a de-escalation agreement in place since last July. The de-escalation zone was negotiated by Russia, the Syrian government's main ally, Washington and Jordan.

Rebel factions, meanwhile, said they responded with missiles at a government air base in the adjacent Sweida province.

The Observatory said 16 people have been killed in government strikes since Tuesday, including nine children. At least 12,000 people have been displaced by fighting in the area since, according to the war monitor.

The agreement has been unraveling in recent weeks as the Syrian government turned its attention southward, after seizing opposition-held areas near the capital, Damascus. Israel, meanwhile, has become more active in opposing Iran's expansion in Syria, carrying out airstrikes against suspected Iranian targets in the area.

Iran is a major backer of President Bashar al-Assad, and its military advisers and allied militias such as Lebanon's Hezbollah, have been fighting alongside his troops.

U.S. State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said on Thursday that Washington was "deeply troubled" by the Syrian government operations in the area and called on Moscow to "restrain" its ally from further actions that risk broadening the conflict.

Southwestern Syria is a mix of government and rebel-controlled areas, with rebels controlling parts of Daraa city and areas along the border with Jordan and the occupied Golan Heights.

Russia and the Syrian government have been pressing for an agreement with the rebels in the area to restore government authority, including over the commercial crossing with Jordan that has been out of its control for years. Talks over extending the de-escalation zone have faltered, although Assad said last week that Moscow, the U.S. and Israel continued discussing a settlement in the area.

Israel wants Iranian-backed militias out of the border area. Jordan wants to avoid a humanitarian crisis at its borders with the renewed violence and is eager to see the border crossing with Syria reopened. The U.N. estimates that 750,000 Syrians live in the region, which has been spared the devastation that hit other parts of Syria in the last three years.

The Russian Ambassador to Lebanon, Alexander Zasypkin, told the Lebanese al-Akhbar daily that Israel fears the presence of Hezbollah and Iran in the south.

"We say that the Syrian army, with support from the Russian troops, is regaining control of its territories and restoring the state authority there," Zasypkin said. "There is no justification for Israel to carry out any action that would hamper fighting terrorism."

Meanwhile, highlighting the tension in the southern area, skirmishes late Thursday between a U.S.-backed rebel group and pro-government forces miles away were followed by a U.S. airstrike that left a Syrian soldier killed, Syrian media and a U.S. official said.

The U.S maintains a base in Tanf, miles east of Daraa province where the government has been striking rebel positions.

A U.S. official said that during a patrol by the U.S.-backed fighters inside a de-confliction zone around the base, a small number of pro-government forces fired at them from outside of the zone. U.S. and aligned forces retreated, but the pro-government forces continued to fire, the official said.

A U.S. airstrike was later called in, in "self-defense," said the official who wasn't authorized to discuss the situation publicly and insisted on anonymity. The airstrike in the al-Halba area killed one soldier, the Syrian state news agency SANA reported.

The U.S. official said the airstrike was near the de-confliction zone around the base, where the U.S. trains Syrian fighters, and which was agreed to in a deal between the U.S. and Russia. The Syrian government and its Iranian allies want the U.S. to evacuate the base.</s>Dear Reader, As you can imagine, more people are reading The Jerusalem Post than ever before. Nevertheless, traditional business models are no longer sustainable and high-quality publications, like ours, are being forced to look for new ways to keep going. Unlike many other news organizations, we have not put up a paywall. We want to keep our journalism open and accessible and be able to keep providing you with news and analyses from the frontlines of Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish World.

Artillery and bombs rained down on Syrian rebel-held areas in southern Syria as the Syrian regime ramped up its offensive against the rebels after years of relative quiet and cease-fire. On Saturday, the first Russian air strikes in more than a year were carried out against rebel positions. The offensive, currently 20 kilometers from Israel’s Golan border, has the potential to cause spillover in the form of refugees or clashes. On Sunday, the IDF fired a Patriot missile at a drone near the Golan.



In mid-June, the Syrian regime and its allies, including Shi’ite militias aligned with Iran, began concentrating forces in southern Syria. The rebels hold a U-shaped area in southern Syria. One side runs along the Golan Heights and the other stretches north from the Jordanian border. At the bottom of the “U” is Dara’a, a city next to the Jordanian border that the regime and the rebels have contested since the start of the rebellion in 2011.





On June 21, the US State Department said it was “troubled by reports of increasing Syrian regime operations in southwest Syria.” It reminded Russia of its agreement to a “de-escalation” zone or cease-fire in talks with US President Donald Trump in July and November. Jordan is also part of the agreement. “The US continues to warn both the Russian government and the Assad regime of serious repercussions of these violations.”However, the US has also warned the Syrian rebels that they should not expect intervention by the US to stop an offensive. Since last year, the US has been seeking to reduce the support and commitments it had previously given to the rebels in southern Syria. A post on Twitter by Syrian journalist Fadi Hussein said the US had sent messages to Syrian rebel groups saying that Washington would not be able to help them.The unfolding battle in southern Syria begins in the wake of a recent visit by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the visit by US Presidential advisor Jared Kushner and special envoy Jason Greenblatt last week. All these visits were expected to deal with the US push for a peace plan regarding Israel and the Palestinians, but the crises in southern Syria has also been an issue for Washington and Jerusalem.Eran Lerman of the Jerusalem Institute for Strategic Studies and Nir Boms, a research fellow at the Moshe Dayan Center, Tel Aviv University, wrote on Sunday that Israel may soon face a dilemma in southern Syria. “The ‘arrangement’ with Russia as to the future may stave off an Iranian presence but will pose an existential danger to the groups of rebels near the border, groups which have worked closely with the IDF to prevent direct friction with hostile elements.”They ask what will become of Israel’s Operation Good Neighbor, the policy of providing humanitarian aid to Syrians near the Golan. Now these Syrian rebels and civilians face the regime’s tanks and Russian aircraft. “Can Israel afford spectating on the massacre of innocent civilians taking place a mere hundreds of meters from its northern border?”Boms says that if Israel appears to abandon the Syrian rebels and civilians near its border, it could feed a broader regional narrative that Israel has abandoned its allies. However, there are already reports that humanitarian aid for Syrians has been decreased recently ahead of the Syrian regime offensive.The Syrian regime has decided to start the offensive as far away as possible from Israel in order to not complicate its attacks. This includes a major offensive against the town of Busra al-Harir, which is located on the eastern side of the U-shaped rebel enclave. Bombs, shelling and infantry attacks have targeted the rebels along the long front line with the regime and are making limited advances.On Sunday both the Israeli and Jordanian borders saw increased air activity. Israel fired a Patriot missile at a UAV near the Golan and there were reports that Jordanian air defense targeted a reconnaissance plane near its border as well. This will raise tensions along the border and concerns that the offensive is already having repercussions for Israel and Jordan.</s>Syrian government forces are keeping up their pressure on the country's strategic southwest, using artillery, airstrikes and dropping barrel bombs that target rebel-held parts of the region, activists said.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said more than 12 barrel bombs hit the province of Daraa, the first use of the rudimentary and non-discriminatory weapons there in over a year.

Rockets and artillery shells have also targeted northern and eastern Daraa, and there were reports of overnight airstrikes on Busr al-Harir, a northeast Daraa town where government troops are trying to isolate the rebels.

Rebel factions, meanwhile, said they responded with missiles at a government air base in the adjacent Sweida province.

The Observatory said 16 people have been killed in government strikes since Tuesday, including nine children. At least 12,000 people have been displaced by the fighting.

The government campaign in the southwestern Syrian region bordering Jordan and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights comes despite U.S. warnings of "serious repercussions" for anyone violating a de-escalation agreement in place since last July.

The truce, referred to as a de-escalation zone, was negotiated between Russia, the Syrian government's main ally, Washington and Jordan and has kept the area calm.

But the truce began to unravel in recent weeks as the Russia- and Iran-backed Syrian government turned its attention southward, after seizing opposition-held areas near the capital, Damascus. Israel, meanwhile, has grown more active in protesting Iran's expansion in Syria, carrying out airstrikes against suspected Iranian targets in the area.

US State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said yesterday that Washington was "deeply troubled" by the Syrian government operations in the area and called on Moscow to "restrain" its ally from further actions that risk broadening the conflict.

The region is a mix of government and rebel-controlled areas, with rebels controlling parts of Daraa city and areas along the border.

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The Syrian government launches a ground offensive in the eastern part of the southern province of Daraa.