Syrian Rebels Claim To Take Control Of Daraa

Syrian opposition forces claim to have taken control of Daraa city in southwestern Syria, inching closer to the capital Damascus.

Rebel factions representing the Druze sect in Daraa’s neighboring city of as-Suwayda also launched an offensive against Syrian regime forces there.

Syria’s army said it is “redeploying” outside of the two southern cities after “terrorists” attacked military checkpoints.

“Our forces operating in Daraa and as-Suwayda implemented a redeployment, repositioning and established a strong and cohesive defensive and security cordon in that direction,” the regime’s military said in a statement.

The rebels are battling Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s forces from two directions; the north and the south, in an attempt to close in on Damascus. Daraa is where the Syrian uprising started in 2011.

The southern factions are different from factions in the north led by the Islamist rebel group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), who have already taken two major cities during their offensive that started over a week ago. Still, those groups aim for the same goal, which is toppling Assad.

“Our forces have taken full control of the entire city of Daraa and have started combing through its neighborhoods and securing its institutions and government offices,” local rebel fighters known as the Southern Operations Room said in a statement late Friday.

The offensives have reawakened a civil war that had been largely dormant for years. The conflict began in 2011, after Assad moved to stamp out peaceful pro-democracy protests during the Arab Spring. The fighting swelled as other regional actors and world powers – from Saudi Arabia and the United States to Iran and Russia – piled in, escalating the civil war into what some observers described as a “proxy war.”

More than 300,000 civilians have been killed in more than a decade of war, according to the United Nations, with millions more displaced across the region.

On Friday, rebels in southern Syria also took control of a Syria-Jordan border crossing, after launching a fresh assault. The Nassib border crossing marks the southernmost point of the major M5 highway, which runs the length of the country from the northern city of Aleppo and through the capital.

In a video geolocated by CNN, armed fighters were seen marching down a road by the Nassib border crossing, after wrestling it from government control.

The rebels in the north, after capturing Aleppo a week ago, have pushed south along the highway and on Thursday took the city of Hama. They have now set their sights on Homs.

And as anti-regime offensives gather pace both to the north and south of the capital Damascus, Kurdish-led fighters say they have moved into eastern parts of Syria.

CNN/Ejiofor Ezeifeoma