Syria’s Army Gains Ground from Rebels in Southern Syria

“Syria’s army gained ground from rebels in the south on Tuesday, in what a monitoring group described as a large-scale offensive in the region backed by Lebanese Hezbollah fighters against insurgents, including al-Qaida’s Syrian wing,” Reuters reports.

“The operation started two days ago and is very big,” Rami Abdulrahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group, said.

According to Abdulrahman, the goal of the regime’s offensive is to retake “a triangle of rebel-held territory from rural areas southwest of Damascus to Deraa city to Quneitra.”

Government forces seized the town of Deir al-Addas, according to Hezbollah’s al-Manar news channel. A military source quoted by Syrian State Television added that the town of Denaji between Damascus and the southern boundary town of Quneitra was taken.

The south is one of the few areas where mainstream, non-jihadist rebels have retained a foothold against the regime of President Bashar al-Assad. The rebels are portrayed as being the most organized of all the mainstream armed opposition forces fighting the regime.

“Syrian troops had been on the defensive in the south, losing control of large areas of countryside near Jordan as well as parts of the border along with Israel near the Golan Heights, according to regional military analysts and diplomats,” Reuters cited.

Syrian Army Bombards Douma, East of Damascus, Following Rebel Attack on the Capital

Dozens of civilians were killed when government warplanes bombarded the city of Douma, a suburb in the rebel-held area of Ghouta, east of Damascus, following an attack last week by the Islam Army on central Damascus.

The bombing was the latest blow in a campaign the regime has been carrying out on the Damascus countryside for the past week, reports the International Business Times.

“Roughly 178 civilians were killed in the province from February 5–9. In one attack on Thursday, regime forces hit a busy market in Kafr Batna city, killing 39 civilians. The next day, the regime launched more than 60 rockets at a residential neighborhood in Douma, killing 28 civilians,” according to a report from the Syrian Network for Human Rights, an independent human rights monitoring group.

Regime forces claim the bombings are in response to an attack by the Islam Army on the capital last week. The attack was announced on Twitter by Jaysh al-Islam (Islam Army) leader Zahran Alloush, who said his group considered Damascus a “military zone” and the attack was a “taste” of what the Syrian military had done to Ghouta.

The statement came following an attack by the Islam Army on the capital with at least 38 rockets on January 25, one of the heaviest attacks on Damascus this year.

“Government forces have been regularly attacking Douma and its surrounding areas, a stronghold of Alloush’s group, by air raids and helicopter barrel bomb attacks. Hundreds of civilians have been killed alongside opposition fighters,” the BBC wrote last week.

Family Confirms U.S. Hostage Kayla Mueller Killed

Kayla Mueller, the American woman taken hostage by the Islamic State, has died,the White House and her family said in separate statements, NPR reports.

“Mueller was seized while leaving a Doctors Without Borders hospital in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo in August 2013. She had a record of volunteering abroad and was moved by the plight of civilians in Syria’s civil war,” Reuters reports.

ISIS militants claim Mueller died after one of the Jordanian airstrikes against the militant group targeted the building where she was being held.

Jordan, part of the U.S.-led coalition against the Islamic State, launched a new round of airstrikes this weekend against the group after a video was posted online by the Islamic State claiming to show captured Jordanian pilot Moaz al-Kasasbeh being burned alive.

“We are heartbroken to share that we’ve received confirmation that Kayla Jean Mueller has lost her life,” Mueller’s parents and her brother said in a statement.

Mueller “represents what is best about America, and expressed her deep pride in the freedoms that we Americans enjoy, and that so many others strive for around the world,” President Obama said in a statement.

The family and the White House did not specify how Mueller died, but National Security Council spokeswoman Bernadette Meehan said Kayla’s family received “additional information” over the weekend from the Islamic State that confirmed she had died.

“The intelligence community authenticated that information,” Meehan said.

Recommended Reads

• AP Exclusive: U.S. Says Foreign Fighters Flock to Join Islamic State, Other Extremists in War
• The Daily Star: Hezbollah Leads Fight to Retake Syria’s South
• Al-Arabiya: Syria Rejects Foreign Ground Troops to Fight ISIS
• The Guardian: Obama ISIS Plan to Extend Beyond Iraq, Syria
• The New York Times: Jordan and Emirates Carry Out Airstrikes in Syria Against ISIS