Families flee as Syria regime bombards southern city

Assad’s forces reportedly drop barrel bombs on Daraa in offensive to oust rebels from strategic area bordering Israel and Jordan

By AFP 25 June 2018, 4:01 pm

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A woman walks with a cane past a destroyed car down a street in Al-Hirak in the eastern Daraa province countryside in southern Syria on June 21, 2018. (AFP PHOTO / Mohamad ABAZEED)

BEIRUT, Lebanon — Syria’s regime pounded rebel-held parts of the southern city of Daraa with rockets and barrel bombs overnight causing dozens of families to flee, a monitor and an AFP reporter said Monday.

Government forces have ramped up their bombardment of the wider province of the same name for nearly a week, as fears rise of a full-blown regime assault to retake the country’s south from rebels.

Regime helicopters dropped barrel bombs on rebel-held areas of Daraa city for the first time in a year, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor said.

An AFP correspondent said the heavy bombardment pushed dozens of terrified families to flee their homes on foot or on the back of motorbikes to seek shelter in olive groves on the outskirts of the city.

Some families took refuge in small shelters or tents between the olive trees, the correspondent said.

Russia-backed regime forces have been preparing an offensive to oust rebels from Syria’s south, a strategic area bordering Jordan and the Israel.

Smoke rises above buildings during an airstrike by Syrian regime forces on the town of Busra al-Harir, east of the southern Syrian province of Daraa on June 24, 2018. (AFP PHOTO / Mohamad ABAZEED)

On Monday morning, Russian and regime aircraft continued to bomb villages and towns in the east, the Observatory said.

Regime forces launched barrel bombs on the town of Basr al-Harir, while heavy shelling and rocket fire of the Al-Laja area put a civil defense center out of service.

The uptick in violence has killed at least 28 civilians in just under a week, the monitor said, with rescue teams struggling to reach affected areas due to the intensity of the bombing.

More than 17,000 civilians have also been displaced from their homes in Daraa’s eastern countryside, the Observatory said.

Civilians flee during airstrike by Syrian regime forces in the east of the southern Syrian province of Daraa on June 24, 2018. (AFP PHOTO / Mohamad ABAZEED)

The United Nations has warned that renewed hostilities could put 750,000 lives in rebel parts of Daraa at risk.

Parts of Daraa, as well as the neighboring provinces of Quneitra and Sweida, fall under a “de-escalation zone” agreed by Russia, the US and Jordan in July 2017.

Since then, Russia — whose warplanes have backed Assad’s forces since 2015 — had refrained from bombing the south of the country until it resumed strikes Saturday.

Daraa and the adjacent province of Quneitra are mostly held by opposition forces, while the government controls most of the province of Sweida to the east.

Syria’s war has killed more than 350,000 people and displaced millions since it started in 2011 with the brutal repression of anti-government protests.