Your trusted source

Syrian government forces say they have retaken a town that was the epicenter of the civil war that engulfed the country and the region for more than seven years.

State media said the Syrian troops entered the town of Dara'a on Thursday, CNN reports.

Under an agreement reached last week with militant groups, the Syrian government said "terrorist groups will hand over heavy and medium weapons," and that those who agree to the accord will be permitted to remain in the area.

Smoke rises above opposition held areas of the city of Dara'a during airstrikes by Syrian regime forces on June 28, 2018.

"Those who refuse reconciliation will be evacuated," the state-run SANA news agency reported Thursday.

Troops raised the Syrian flag once again over the town of Dara'a, where graffiti taunting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad about the demise of Arab dictators in other countries first sparked the uprising that became the Syrian war.

For many Syrians, the war began in the town of Dara'a, an agricultural town on the border with Jordan. In March 2011, 15 teenage boys were arrested because of graffiti spray-painted on a high school wall.

The images of Arab strongmen like Egypt's Hosni Mubarak and Tunisia's Ben Ali abdicating power prompted someone to scrawl on the wall: 'It's your turn now Doctor,' referring to Assad, the ophthalmologist.

Town officials couldn't find the perpetrator. The boys were held, beaten, had fingernails removed, and were tortured for weeks in a bid to prise a confession out of them.

While they were captive, their town revolted, protesting daily and calling on Assad to pressure the town's police chief to release them.

Weeks later they were finally freed, and Dara'a had become a focal point in the government's effort to suppress unrest. By the spring of 2011, army tanks rolled into the town, rebel forces took up positions to fight the army, and the town and the surrounding areas, descended into unrelenting violence.

Over seven years later, with millions of Syrians displaced and hundreds of thousands dead, the final push into Dara'a seemingly puts an end to the war as Syrian and Russian forces wrap up a major offensive launched last month.