Fighting between government, rebels intensifies in Syria's Daraa
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said eight government-affiliated forces and three opposition fighters died in the clashes Thursday.
Tensions between Syria’s pro-government forces and opposition fighters have escalated in Daraa, the Syrian city considered the birthplace of the 2011 uprising against the regime.
Two civilians, including one child, died in the clashes Thursday, the Syrian state-run news agency SANA said. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based war monitor, said eight government troops and allied militia forces died Thursday, as well as three opposition fighters.
The fighting was focused in Daraa al-Balad, a southern district of the city under the control of former rebel forces. The monitoring group said regime forces fired short-range surface-to-surface rockets and mortars, and local fighters responded with attacks on military positions and checkpoints in the Daraa countryside.
The fighting marks the “most violent and broadest clashes in Daraa since it came under regime control,” the monitoring group said.
