Syrian rebels lose string of towns as 160,000 flee regime offensive

A string of Syrianrebel-held towns and villages accepted government rule onSaturday, as insurgent lines collapsed in parts of the southwestunder an intense bombardment that the United Nations says hasforced 160,000 people to flee.

The southwest was an early hotbed of the uprising againstPresident Bashar al-Assad and defeat there would leave rebelswith just one remaining stronghold the area around Idlibprovince bordering Turkey in the northwest.

Rebels met Russian negotiators on Saturday to seek peaceterms for Daraa province, where most of their southwest territory is located, but said these failed. Moscow is Assad'sstrongest ally and its air power since 2015 has been crucial tohis recapture of vast swathes of Syria.

Local groups in many towns seized by the army in recent dayshad negotiated their own surrender deals independently of themain rebel operations rooms, after heavy air raids.

Rebels said they had taken back several towns and villageslost to the army earlier in the day, but their overall loss of ground was still significant.

State television broadcast footage from inside the towns ofDael andal-Gharbiya, where people were shown chanting pro-Assad slogans. A war monitor and a military mediaunit run by the government's ally Hezbollah said numerous othertowns and villages had agreed to come back under Assad's rule.

126 civilians killed

Fierce battles were still ongoing around Daraa city, nearthe Jordanian border, where the army had repeatedly failed to capture a disused air base, rebels said. The northwestern chunkof Daraa province remains in opposition hands.

Meanwhile, air raids meanwhile intensified, said the monitor, theSyrian Observatory for Human Rights, as displaced people flocked to the border areas least likely to be hit, and the UnitedNations warned of a humanitarian catastrophe.

After the peace talks failed on Saturday, warplanes launcheda new wave of strikes on the rebel-held towns of Bosra al-Sham,al-Nuaima and other areas, the Observatory reported, causingdeaths, injuries and damage.

One strike killed at least 10 people, including five children, in the town of al-Sahwa, east of Daraa, it said, raising to 126 the number of civilians killed in the offensive since fightingescalated on June 19.

The army's offensive follows the capitulation of rebelenclaves near Homs and Damascus, including eastern Ghouta, whichwas recaptured after a scorched-earth assault that killed over 1,000 civilians and laid waste to several towns.

Warfare in the southwest could risk a further escalationbecause of its proximity to Israel. The Israelis have already targeted Iran-backed militias fighting on Assad's side, whichthey have vowed to keep far from their country's borders.

'Malicious deal'

The government's offensive so far has focused on Daraaprovince, which borders Jordan, but not Quneitra province abutting the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

The entire southwest is part of a "de-escalation zone"agreed last year by Russia, the United States and Jordan.

Despite Washington's threats that it would respond to breachesof that arrangement, it has shown no sign of doing so, and theopposition's top negotiator on Thursday accused it of havingstruck a "malicious deal" to stay silent.

Jordan, which has taken in more than half a milliondisplaced Syrians since the war began, and Israel have said they will not open their borders to refugees.

Late on Saturday, the Jordanian government said the army hadstarted delivering humanitarian aid to thousands who had takenshelter across the frontier in rebel-held Syria.

At the meetings with Russia, rebel negotiators sought toagree a deal for all of Daraa province to come back under government sovereignty, but without the army or police enteringthe area, an insurgent spokesperson said.

But the talks, in the town of Bosra al-Sham, whose Romancitadel is listed as a UNESCO world heritage site, collapsed asthe insurgents rejected proposed terms for their surrender, arebel spokesperson said.