A major offensive in the area close to Israel could risk drawing Washington further into the conflict

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

Syrian army helicopters have dropped barrel bombs on opposition areas of the country’s south-west for the first time in a year, reports said, in defiance of American demands that president Bashar al-Assad halt the assault.

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Assad has sworn to recapture the area bordering Jordan and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights and the army this week began ramping up an assault there, threatening a “de-escalation” zone agreed upon by the US and Russia last year.

The US on Thursday reiterated its demand that the zone be respected, warning Assad and his Russian allies of “serious repercussions” of violations. It accused Damascus of initiating air strikes, artillery and rocket attacks.

The UN’s secretary-general, Antonio Guterres, on Friday demanded an immediate end to military escalation in south-western Syria, saying he was “concerned at the significant risks these offensives pose to regional security”.

Nikki Haley, the US ambassador to the UN, said earlier on Friday that the Syrian military escalation “unambiguously violates” the de-escalation arrangement and that over 11,000 people had already been displaced.

“Russia will ultimately bear responsibility for any further escalations in Syria,” Haley said in a statement.

A major offensive would risk a wider escalation that could draw the US deeper into the war. The south-west is of strategic concern to Israel, which has this year stepped up attacks on Iran-backed militia allied to Assad.

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The barrel bombs targeted a cluster of rebel-held towns including Busra al-Harir north-east of Daraa, where the government attack threatens to bisect a finger of rebel ground jutting northwards into land held by the government.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a war monitor based in Britain, said Syrian government helicopters had dropped more than 12 barrel bombs on the area, causing damage, but no reported deaths.

Abu Bakr al-Hassan, spokesman for the rebel group Jaish al-Thawra, which fights under the banner of the Free Syrian Army (FSA), said the munitions had been dropped on three towns and villages and that war planes had hit another.

“I believe (the bombardment) is testing two things: the steadfastness of the FSA fighters and the degree of US commitment to the de-escalation agreement in the south,” he told Reuters.

Syrian state television said on Friday that army units had targeted “lairs and movements of terrorists” in the area.

The Syrian government has denied using so-called barrel bombs – containers filled with explosive material that are dropped from helicopters and which cannot be accurately aimed. However, UN investigators have extensively documented its use of them during the conflict.

While government forces have made heavy use of artillery and rockets in the assault, they have yet to draw on the kind of air power that was critical to the recovery of other rebel-held areas. Russian warplanes have yet to take part, rebels say.

Russia’s ambassador to Lebanon, Alexander Zasypkin, was quoted as saying that Russia was helping Damascus to recover the south.

“The Syrian army now, with support from Russian forces, is recovering its land in the south and restoring the authority of the Syrian state,” he told the pro-Hezbollah newspaper al-Akhbar.

“Israel has no justification to carry out any action that obstructs the fight against terrorism,” he added.

A Syrian rebel commander in the south accused Iran of trying to torpedo the de-escalation agreement and vowed fierce resistance. “We possess many weapons,” said Colonel Nassim Abu Arra, commander of the Youth of Sunna Forces group.

Rebels in the southwest have received support, including arms from Assad’s foreign foes during the seven-year-long war.



