Syrian Army Captures Villages in Daraa, Cuts Rebel Supply Line

Syrian regime forces said on Monday that they had captured several villages in the southern province of Daraa, cutting off a vital rebel supply route used by opposition fighters to transport goods from Jordan, AFP reports.

“This new victory … reopens and secures the vital road between Deraa and Sweida [another southern province] and cuts off the supply route for armed terrorist groups,” an army statement said.

“It also cuts the terrorist groups’ supply lines by closing the gate of Lujat, which was used to smuggle weapons and mercenaries from Jordan toward eastern Ghouta in the Damascus countryside,” the statement read.

The takeover was the first major government operation in the southern province of Daraa since the rebels seized a key border crossing with Jordan and the ancient town of Bosra al-Sham earlier this month.

This southwestern corner of Syria is the last remaining foothold of the mainstream opposition against Syrian president Bashar al-Assad.

The army called the takeover a “major blow” for opposition groups.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that after fierce clashes and heavy regime shelling, government forces captured villages around the rebel-held town of Busra al-Harir, 23 miles northeast of Daraa.

U.N. Security Council Demands Access to Yarmouk Refugee Camp

On Monday the U.N. Security Council demanded unhindered humanitarian access to the Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp on the outskirts of Damascus, a site seized by Islamic State militants earlier this month, Reuters reports.

“Members of the Security Council called for unhindered humanitarian access to the Yarmouk Camp and for the protection of civilians,” the statement said.

The council “stressed the need to support the emergency relief effort for civilians in Yarmouk including through funding the $30 million emergency appeal.”

The unanimous appeal by the Security Council came after Pierre Krahenbuhl, head of UNRWA, the U.N. agency that supports Palestinians, said on Monday that several thousand Palestinians remain in Yarmouk and that the humanitarian situation “remains very extreme in terms of circumstances and hardship.”

Syria’s Yarmouk camp has been besieged by fighting between Syrian government forces and rebel groups since 2012. Thousands of Palestinian refugees are trapped inside the camp, facing starvation, malnutrition and disease, and with inadequate access to clean water and electricity.

Islamic State militants attacked the camp earlier this month, prompting a round of clashes with militants inside it.

“Most Islamic State fighters had withdrawn last week after largely defeating their rival, Aknaf al-Maqdis, leaving the al-Qaida-affiliated Nusra as the main group in the camp,” Reuters reports.

The Security Council has since demanded that Jabhat al-Nusra and the Islamic State withdraw from the camp completely.

Prior to the arrival of Nusra and ISIS in the camp, Western and U.N. officials claim that pro-government armed forces were preventing residents inside the camp from getting aid.

“It is critical that all parties, especially the Syrian government, support the U.N. framework for responding to the situation in Yarmouk,” a U.S. official told Reuters on condition of anonymity.

“The unremitting violence and the Assad regime’s nearly two-year-old siege of Yarmouk have reduced the camp to a living hell for the thousands of residents still living there,” the U.S. official added.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad Denies Chemical Weapons and Barrel Bomb Use in French TV Interview

In his first interview on French television since the beginning of the conflict in Syria, Syrian president Bashar al-Assad told French media on Monday that his intelligence services were in touch with their counterparts in France but said there had been no actual cooperation between the two sides, AFP reports.

In the interview with the French state TV channel France 2, the president said there could be no cooperation as long as France maintained a policy of aiding forces seeking his removal from power.

Asked about further contact with France, Assad said he was open to dialogue if the West “convinces us they are not supporting the terrorists.”

In the wide-ranging interview, Assad also denied allegations that his government was behind chemical attacks in northwestern Idlib province last month, and reiterated denials of the use of barrel bombs.

“What are barrel bombs?” Assad asked, referring to containers packed with explosives and projectiles that are dropped from helicopters.

“We haven’t used chlorine gas and we don’t need to,” he said, referring to a recent report by Human Rights Watch claiming evidence that “strongly suggested” regime forces dropped toxic chemicals on civilians several times in barrel bomb attacks in northwestern Syria last month.

Assad also said he had invited Hezbollah militants to fight alongside his regime but he denied the presence of Iranian troops in Syria.

“We invited Hezbollah, but not the Iranians. There are no Iranian troops in Syria and they have not sent any force,” Assad said.

The president accused the U.S. of overseeing the creation of the Islamic State group.

“The ISIS was created in Iraq in 2006 under the supervision of the Americans. The ISIS came from Iraq to Syria because chaos is contagious,” he said.

He also claimed that the U.S.-led coalition efforts to fight the Islamic State were not serious.

“It took them four months to free what their media calls the town of Kobane on the Turkish border. How can you say this coalition is effective? They are not serious and that is why they are not helping anyone in the region.”

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