BEIRUT, Lebanon — Dozens of Islamic State group fighters were cornered in a pocket of Syria’s Daraa on Tuesday after losing all other territory there to a Russian-backed regime assault, a monitor said.
DAMASCUS, Syria — Syrian rebels in the southern city of Daraa were surrendering their heavy weapons to government forces on Saturday, state media said, under a deal brokered by regime ally Russia.
Syria’s army entered rebel-held parts of Daraa city on Thursday, state media said, raising the national flag in the cradle of the uprising that sparked the country’s seven-year war.
Contents: Syria and Russia resume full-scale assault on Daraa; Jordan fears repercussions from Syria’s military offensive in Daraa; Israel concerned about infiltration from Iran and Hezbollah
Syria’s regime and its ally Russia resumed air strikes on the south of the country on Wednesday after rebels said talks over a government takeover had “failed.”
Sweden, which holds the United Nations Security Council’s rotating presidency, and Kuwait requested an emergency, closed-door meeting at the UN Security Council on Tuesday to complain that Israel and Jordan will not accept hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees displaced by Russian-backed bombings in southern Daraa, Syria.
NEW YORK — The UN Security Council will hold an emergency meeting Thursday to discuss the Syrian army’s Russia-backed offensive against rebel groups in southern Syria that has forced some 300,000 people to flee ot the Jordanian and Israeli borders, diplomats said.
Contents: Syria and Russia create humanitarian catastrophe in Daraa; Number displaced by Syrian and Russian bombing in Daara triples to 160,000
At least eight battered rebel-held towns in southern Syria returned to regime control under Russian-brokered deals on Saturday as air strikes killed at least 15 civilians, a monitor said.
Fighters supporting dictator Bashar al-Assad have displaced up to 50,000 and shut down at least three hospitals in a siege to retake a rebel-held region in southwest Syria that borders Jordan and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, the United Nations and a monitor group report this week.
Contents: Tens of thousands fleeing Syrian bombs trapped at closed Jordan border; Israeli missiles strike Iranian cargo plane near Damascus
Russia reportedly breached a ceasefire deal late Saturday night that it had brokered with the United States and Jordan last July by carrying out airstrikes on in rebel-held Daraa, Syria, against forces opposed to Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, leaving at least five civilians dead and destroying a hospital and emergency rescue center during the process.
Contents: Russian bombers join Syrian military assaulting Daraa province; Jordan says it can’t host a new wave of refugees from Syria; Concerns grow in Israel over Syrian and Russian assaults on Daraa and Quneitra provinces.
