Dozens of regime troops killed in Deraa offensive
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,” The Daily Star reported.
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.