The Daily Telegraph

Syria intensifie­s air strikes after talks fail

- By Josie Ensor in Beirut

THE Syrian government resumed its air campaign on rebel-held Deraa yesterday, sending thousands more civilians fleeing towards the closed Israeli and Jordan borders.

The regime restarted its aerial and ground attack of Deraa, in the south of the country, after talks between the opposition and the government’s Russian allies broke down on Wednesday.

There had been a four-day pause as the two sides negotiated, but after the talks failed a barrage of missiles and crude barrel bombs rained down.

Ibrahim Jabawi, a spokesman for the Free Syrian Army group, said the Russians had insisted that the rebels hand over their weapons “immediatel­y” but that they would only do so once the displaced people begin returning to their homes and Iran-backed militias withdrew from the area.

A photograph from the scene of one attack showed a whole family killed in one air strike, their bodies piled on top of each other in the back of a pick-up truck.

More than 320,000 people have fled the area in recent weeks for the frontiers of the Israel-occupied Golan Heights and Jordan, according to the United Nations, which has warned of a humanitari­an crisis.

Both countries have refused to open their borders to refugees, although Amman has sent aid across to camps on the other side.

Families have been forced to sleep outside under trees, with too few resources to go around.

One woman, Umm Omar, said she was struggling to find even a tent for her children.

“Most of the displaced are living in school buildings or sleeping out in the open,” she told The Daily Telegraph. “Children are starting to get illnesses and skin conditions. There is no shelter of any kind.”

The developmen­t came as it emerged Hizbollah militants were fighting in support of the regime near the Golan Heights, despite assurances made to Israel by their Russian allies. They are thought to be fighting in Syrian army uniform so as not to draw attention.

The presence of hostile forces on the ground risks Israeli escalation in one of the most sensitive campaigns yet of the Syrian war.

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