Government forces make new gains in southwestern Syria: Monitor

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Syrian government forces on Sunday seized a village in the Quneitra Province on Sunday, their first push against opposition fighters in the region adjacent to the Israeli-held Golan Heights in the southwest of the country, a war monitor reported.

The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s forces had taken control of the village of Masharah, some 11 kilometers (seven miles) away from the Golan border after heavy shelling.

The clashes had left 18 regime forces and 13 rebels and allied jihadists dead, the monitor said.

SOHR also claimed these were the first strikes in the sensitive buffer zone in over a year, after Russia, the US, and Jordan agreed to a ceasefire for border areas.

Most of the province of Quneitra remains under the control of rebel forces, but Assad is making headway in the neighboring province of Daraa, where it recently shelled the town of Haara.

The Syrian army, with the support of Russian forces, captured most of Daraa since launching a major offensive last month.

On Sunday, Syrian rebels and their families began evacuating the southern city of Daraa where the country’s uprising against Assad started seven years ago. Opposition forces, in an agreement brokered by Russia, have also handed heavy weaponry and equipment over to government forces.

The SOHR monitor said an estimated 1,400 people were to be evacuated on Sunday, including rebels from the city and broader province.

Editing by Karzan Sulaivany