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Five civilians were killed in a regime airstrike in the northwestern Idlib province on Tuesday, according to a local civil defense official.
Twenty-four other people were injured in the raid that targeted residential areas in the opposition-held province, Mustafa Haj Yousuff, head of the White Helmets civil defense agency in Idlib, told Anadolu Agency.
Idlib was designated as "de-escalation zone" in May 2017 in which acts of aggression are expressly forbidden.
Nevertheless, the Bashar al-Assad regime and Russian forces have continued to carry out attacks on the region.
The Syrian regime and its allies have established control over most of the country's southernmost border with Jordan in line with a cease-fire deal between Russia and armed opposition groups.The regime and its allies have reportedly established control along more than half of the Syria-Jordan border, including the strategic Nasib border crossing, located roughly 15 kilometers southeast of the Syrian city of Daraa.Since June 20, the Assad regime has waged a wide-ranging military operation -- supported by Russian air power -- to retake the city.Last Friday, following week-long negotiations, armed opposition groups in southern Syria reached an agreement with Russia to surrender their heavy weapons.Some of the opposition fighters who have laid down their arms have reportedly since retreated to the city of Quneitra in the nearby Golan Heights region.The fighting has led to a major displacement crisis, with an estimated 350,000 civilians fleeing Daraa in recent days towards areas near the Jordanian border.According to armed opposition groups, it remains unclear whether the cease-fire deal covers Daraa’s western outskirts or Quneitra.Following peace talks held last year in Kazakh capital Astana, Daraa was designated a “de-escalation zone” in which acts of aggression are expressly prohibited.Syria has only just begun to emerge from a devastating conflict that began in 2011 when the Assad regime cracked down on demonstrators with unexpected ferocity.
Assad forces deploy along Syria’s border with Jordan
Israel threatened a "harsh response" on Monday to any attempt by Syrian forces advancing against southern opposition areas to deploy in a Golan Heights frontier zone that was demilitarised under a 44-year-old U.N. monitored truce between the neighbouring foes.Syrian government forces backed by Russia have launched an offensive in the southern Deraa province and are widely expected to move on opposition-held Quneitra, which is within a part of the Syrian Golan covered by the armistice.Israel worries that Syria's President Bashar al-Assad could let its enemies Iran and Hezbollah move forces into the area, giving them a foothold near its border. Tehran and the Lebanese group both back Assad in the complex conflict."For our part we will sanctify the 1974 disengagement agreement, and there too we will insist that every last letter be abided by, and any violation with meet a harsh response from the State of Israel," Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman told his parliamentary faction in broadcast remarks.Assad's conduct in southern Syria is expected to come up in talks in Moscow on Wednesday between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Russian President Vladimir Putin.On Sunday night, Syria said its air defence repelled an Israeli sorties against the T4 air base in Homs province, where seven Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps personnel died in an April 9 attack that Damascus and Tehran also blamed on Israel.Israel, in keeping with its customary reticence on such operations, declined all comment."Regarding yesterday - I read about it in the newspapers today and I have nothing to add," Lieberman said on Monday."Perhaps just one thing, that our policy has not changed. We will not allow Iran's entrenchment in Syria and we will not allow Syrian soil to be turned into a vanguard against the State of Israel. Nothing has changed. There is nothing new."
Israel threatens 'harsh response' to any Syrian forces in demilitarised Golan
The Syrian army and allied troops on Monday laid siege to the opposition-held enclave in the southern city of Deraa and their troops were poised to gain complete control of the city, the Syrian opposition said.Abu Shaima, a spokesman for the opposition in the city, said several thousand people were now encircled after the army pushed into a main base west of the city without a fight before a formal evacuation of opposition members to a Russian-brokered surrender deal.A deal was reached on Friday between Russian officers and opposition representatives that surrendered Deraa city along with other towns in the southern province that borders Jordan in another victory for Assad and his Russian and Iranian allies.
Syrian opposition says army besieges their enclave in southern Deraa