Regime forces launch south Syria attack despite ceasefire

Syrian government forces launch an attack on rebels in a southern province on Monday despite a ceasefire, a monitor says, but state media claims the assault was against the Islamic State group.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitor, says the assault in Sweida province began this morning, almost 24 hours into an internationally brokered ceasefire.

Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman says the groups under attack have received support from the US-led coalition fighting IS.

He says the regime had captured a string of hilltops and villages in the area. But Syrian state media names those same positions as territory that government forces had captured from IS.

— AFP