Heavy clashes grip southern Syria’s Deraa province, monitor says

Fighting started when government forces fired artillery shells towards Deraa al-Balad in tandem with a ground push.

Fighting between Syrian government forces and rebels has intensified near Deraa city, in what has been described as the heaviest clashes since the southern eponymous province came under government control. Russian-backed government troops and allied forces recaptured Deraa from rebels in 2018, a symbolic blow to the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad that was born there in 2011. State institutions have since returned, but the army has still not deployed across the whole province. Tit-for-tat bombings and assassinations between former opposition figures and government forces have since become routine.