Attempt to wrest back control of villages near Sweida

Syrian troops and Iranian-backed militias launched an assault on Bedouin villages in southeast Syria on Monday to consolidate control of a swathe of desert stretching to the Iraqi border, Western-backed rebels said.

The rebels said they had came under attack at dawn in a sparsely populated desert area that lies east of the pro-government controlled city of Sweida, which is mainly inhabited by the Druze minority.

The air and ground offensive, backed by Russian air power, was waged on eight villages from Tal Asfar to Tlul al Shuhaib that had been seized at the end of March by Free Syrian Army (FSA) rebels from Islamic State after the hardline militants had retreated to regroup further north.

Biggest attack

“This is the biggest attack by the regime and on the villages of eastern Sweida. They have used all types of weapons from aerial bombing to artillery and an unprecedented ground offensive,” said Mohammad Adnan, spokesman of Jaish Ahrar al Ashaer, a rebel group composed of tribal fighters operating in the border area with Jordan. “In the years when Daesh controlled these area, the army never clashed with them,” Mr. Adnan added.

The rugged desert area is mainly inhabited by Bedouin tribes who have long defied government authority. Many of them make up the main rebel groups based in the area.

The area is not part of the U.S. and Russian-brokered ceasefire for southwest Syria that came into effect on Sunday in the first peace-making effort of the war by the U.S. government under President Donald Trump.