Dozens of regime troops killed in Deraa offensive

BEIRUT: The Syrian-Iranian-Hezbollah offensive in southern Syria launched last week has seen dozens of regime forces killed thus far, according to multiple sources, as well as the execution of a dozen government soldiers for “treason.”

A slight improvement in weather conditions Sunday allowed the regime to launch at least four airstrikes against rebel positions, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The rebel Free Syrian Army’s Southern Front alliance said no casualties, civilian or military, resulted from either the airstrikes or several “barrel bombs” dropped on areas in Deraa province.

The battle was launched last week by the Syrian army, supported heavily by paramilitary groups including Lebanon’s Hezbollah.

The Observatory said 43 fatalities, including 12 officers, have been suffered so far by the Syrian army, National Defense paramilitaries, Hezbollah and Iran’s Quds Force.

Rebel groups have posted photographs purporting to show the corpses of two Iranian officers killed in the battles.

Also, the National Defense branch in Deraa has announced that a dozen Syrian government troops, among them an officer, were executed for “treason” for collaborating with rebels. The group’s Facebook page said Friday that the soldiers were posted in the Deraa town of Sanamei but did not give further details of the incident. Pro-opposition sources have claimed Iranian officers are taking control of the campaign and that a number of Syrian military personnel were either transferred from the front or punished for collaboration in the run-up to the offensive.

Saturday, the Deraa National Defense branch listed the names of 19 troops, including seven officers who were “martyred as a result of treason.”

The Facebook page also acknowledged that a number of military leaders had been replaced due to the “gains made by gunmen in recent days,” referring to the rebels.

Also Saturday, several members of the state-owned satellite station Al-Ikhbariya were wounded in a rebel mortar bomb attack on the village of Deir al-Adas, which was seized by loyalist at the outset of the offensive.

Maj. Essam al-Rayyes, the spokesman for the Southern Front, told Arabiya television Sunday that the rebels have lost three villages as part of the offensive over the last 10 days, but that the hit-and-run nature of the fighting was likely to continue for a considerable period of time.

Asked about the role of the Nusra Front in the battles, Rayyes said the Al-Qaeda affiliate was largely fighting against regime forces on its own, separate from the FSA-led effort, with “no coordination” between the two sides.

“The regime has liberated three villages and its media is playing this up,” he continued, “and if the regime wants to liberate Deraa and Qunaitra … we’ll be ready to surprise them.”

Psychological warfare is also playing a large part of the campaign, as pro-opposition groups circulated Sunday what they said was a letter written by a regime soldier in Deraa – the soldier complained of receiving poor treatment at the hands of Iranian officers and Hezbollah fighters who have taken over responsibility for the government’s offensive.

The authenticity of the letter could not be verified and it matches the opposition’s claims that this offensive involves the largest role yet for non-Syrian military groups.

 

 

http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Middle-East/2015/Feb-16/287553-dozens-of-regime-troops-killed-in-deraa-offensive.ashx