SYRIAN OFFENSIVE IN SOUTHWEST

Eight towns return to regime control

Afp, Beirut

At least eight battered rebel-held towns in southern Syria yesterday returned to regime control under Russian-brokered deals after nearly two weeks of bombardment, a Britain-based monitor said.

Since June 19, the Damascus regime has pressed a deadly bombardment campaign in southern Syria in a bid to retake the strategic area bordering Jordan and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

The agreements for the eight towns in the southern province of Daraa were reached even as regime air strikes pounded other opposition holdouts nearby, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor said.

The deals are the latest in a string of such "reconciliation" agreements across the country that have seen the government retake opposition-held areas, often after deadly air and ground offensives.

Regime and Russian strikes on other parts of Daraa yesterday killed at least five civilians, the Observatory said. That brought the total number of civilians killed in regime bombardment on the province to 105 non-combatants including 19 children since June 19.

In that same period, 96 pro-regime fighters and at least 59 rebels have lost their lives.