Opposition groups in Syria’s southwestern Daraa province have vowed to resist regime forces as the Syrian regime pushed ahead with a deadly military offensive in the opposition stronghold that killed 11 civilians on Wednesday.
On Monday, regime forces and allied militias launched a ground offensive -- supported by Russian air power -- following four earlier attempts to storm Daraa’s northeastern town of Busra al-Harir.
Recent days have seen Syrian regime forces and their Iran-backed allies advance to the town’s outskirts, where they have continued to clash with armed opposition groups.
According to local civil-defense sources, at least 40 people have been killed by repeated regime attacks in the area in a week.
The opposition groups called on the international community to fulfill its responsibility toward halting regime atrocities in the area.
Russia announced on Wednesday that the cease-fire deal with the U.S. and Jordan in Syria's south is over.
Hmeimim Air Base in the port city of Latakia said on Twitter that the cease-fire was violated by opposition forces.
"Hmeimim Air Base announces end of agreement to reduce escalation in southern Syria," said the tweet, adding that the cease-fire on deescalation in Idlib is still in place.
The Daraa and Quneitra provinces in Syria's southwest were one of the four de-escalation zones established by Astana Process' guarantor countries Turkey, Iran and Russia in May 2017.
Two months later, Russia, Jordan and the U.S. included the provinces in a separate special agreement, making the U.S. stop supporting opposition in the region.
Despite all warnings from the U.S., Iran started an operation in Daraa on June 20, trying to capture the city in the south.
The UN estimates that at least 50,000 people have been internally displaced by the regime offensive and that the fighting has affected around 750,000 in the area.
As part of Astana process, Daraa was one of the de-escalation zones that was established in May 2017 by guarantor countries Turkey, Iran and Russia.
Later in July, the U.S. and Russia reached an agreement to declare Daraa a “de-escalation zone”.
Syria has been locked in a vicious civil war since 2011 when the Bashar al-Assad regime cracked down on pro-democracy protests with unexpected ferocity. Since then, hundreds of thousands of people have been killed in the conflict, according to the UN. With AA
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