Syria reclaims rebel territory as Iraq builds border fence

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A string of rebel-held locations in southern Syria passed into government control on Sunday as troops regained more ground under Russian-brokered deals, a war monitor said.

Meanwhile, Iraqi border guards said they have started building a fence along the country’s border with Syria to stop Islamic State (ISIL) militants crossing into the country.

Talks involving rebels, local officials and Syria’s ally Russia saw agreements struck for four villages and a strategic town near the border with Jordan, extending government control to some 60 percent of the southern Daraa province, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Since June 19, Russia-backed government forces have ramped up bombardment against opposition fighters in southern Syria as Damascus pushes to retake the area.

Syrians wait at the border areas near Jordan after they fled from the ongoing military operations by Bashar al Assad government and its allies in Syria's Daraa, on June 29, 2018. /VCG Photo

A ceasefire deal meant that a tentative calm reigned over most fronts in the region from Saturday evening, but clashes in one area took the lives of at least 17 rebels and government troops, Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman said.

The Daraa region borders Jordan and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights and is considered to be the cradle of the uprising against President Bashar al Assad seven years ago that sparked the civil war.

The government has chipped away at rebel-held territory in Daraa since ratcheting up the violence almost two weeks ago, with Russia stepping in to oversee a string of deals to retake towns from the embattled rebels.

The agreements on Sunday covered four villages and the town of Bosra al Sham, meaning that government forces were now within 7 kilometers of the Jordanian border, the Britain-based Observatory said.

Russia pushes for weapons handover

Fighting had died down on most fronts on Sunday with the exception of areas near Tafas in Daraa's northwest which was hit by government air strikes, according to the monitor.

Clashes between rebels and government forces and 22 air raids killed 10 opposition fighters and seven government troops, it said.

So far 132 civilians, including 25 children, have been killed in the latest surge in fighting in Daraa, according to the Observatory.

Syrian rebel fighters ride a tank in Daraa, southwestern Syria, on June 23, 2018. /VCG Photo

Damascus and Moscow are pushing for a deal that would see government forces take over the Nasib border crossing with Jordan and deploy along the frontier with the Golan Heights, monitor head Abdel Rahman said.

Russia is seeking the rebel handover of heavy and medium-sized weapons, and the deployment of Russian military police and Syrian police into towns retaken by government forces, he said.

The Syrian government has more than doubled the amount of territory it held in Daraa since escalating its military pressure.

On Saturday government forces retook eight towns under Russia-mediated deals.

State news agency SANA said on Sunday the national flag had been hoisted in one of these towns, Dael, while Syrian state television showed images of people celebrating.

Government forces have retaken large parts of the country lost to rebels since Russia intervened on its behalf in 2015.

The conflict has killed more than 350,000 people and displaced millions since it started in 2011.

Iraq raising a wall against ISIL

In a related development, Iraq has started work on a border fence along its border with Syria.

"Ten days ago we started to set up a barbed wire security fence with surveillance towers along the border with Syria," said Anwar Hamid Nayef, border guards spokesman in Iraq's Anbar province.

The frontier barrier includes a six-meter-wide trench and involves thermal cameras and drones scanning the border for terrorists attempting to cross from Syria.

A bird sits over a fence under the falling snow in a refugee camp in Al Hawl, located some 14 kilometers from the Iraqi border in Syria's northeastern Hassakeh province, on February 1, 2017. /VCG Photo

Baghdad declared victory over ISIL at the end of last year, but the group holds pockets of territory in the vast deserts of eastern Syria and maintains its ability to strike inside Iraq.

The new fence so far runs for 20 kilometer north from the area around the border town of Al-Qaim, which Iraqi forces retook from ISIL in November.

In total the frontier stretches for some 600 kilometers.

Border spokesman Nayef said that experts from Baghdad's Ministry of Defense and an anti-ISIL coalition spearheaded by the United States would come "to evaluate the effectiveness of the fence".

"If they approve the installations, we will continue along the whole border with Syria," he said.

In a sign of the continuing menace it poses to Iraq, the bodies of eight captives executed by ISIL were this week found along a highway north of Baghdad.

In a bid to combat the extremists, Iraqi forces have carried out a series of air strikes against IS inside Syria.

[Cover: A handout picture released by the official Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) on June 30, 2018 shows Syrian government soldiers gesturing as they walk in the town of Western Ghariyah, about 15 kilometers east of the southern embattled city of Daraa. /VCG Photo]

Source(s): AFP