Defeating the cities of southern Syria in power takeover talks

AL-SOURA (LEBANON): Rebels controlling several cities in southern Syria on Friday envisioned an agreement to seize power in exchange for the end of the bombings, state media reported.

Since 19 June, Russian-backed government forces have been bombarding parts of Daraa province held by the opposition with air strikes and barrel bombs, simultaneously calling for rebels to surrender.

The Syrian news agency SANA reported that rebels from three cities in the eastern Daraa countryside had already accepted a takeover of the regime in the last two days.

On Friday, he published preliminary reports that rebels in four other cities had "agreed to surrender their weapons … and to reconcile."

The Syrian army on Friday organized a press tour of recently-resumed cities in the south of the country, including Al-Soura.

A military commander, expressing himself under the guise of anonymity, told reporters that the advance of the army had left the opposition fighters "without any other choice "than to surrender.

"Terrorist groups are moving towards settlement and reconciliation," said the commander.

The strategy is the one that the government and its Russian ally have used throughout Syria: to bomb, isolate rebel cities by ground attacks, and finally obtain their surrender.

They have already divided the territory of the rebels in the south – which forms a rugged U-shape covering Daraa and the neighboring province of Quneitra – into several pieces.

The Syrian Observatory of Human Rights, a Britain-based war observer, said Friday that eight cities were in negotiations over a possible seizure of power.

"There are talks between the Russians on one side and the opposition factions on the other, through local mediators, about the fate of eight cities in the countryside of Deraa, "the statement said.

Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Observatory, said that members of the Russian military police conducted the talks separately for each city.

"Most of them seem willing to come to terms with the regime, which will see rebel fighters handing over their heavy weapons," Abdel Rahman said.

Syrian and Russian warplanes on Friday carried out airstrikes across the province of Daraa and the provincial capital of the same name, the Observatory announced.

Nearly 100 civilians have been killed since the beginning of the badault a week ago, according to the monitor.

The United Nations says that about 66,000 people have fled their homes, many of them to the border with Jordan, which remains closed.