Syrian conflict leaves another city in ruins

Planes, artillery strike rebels in Daraa

BEIRUT — Syrian government forces pounded parts of the southern city of Daraa with airstrikes and artillery fire, activists reported Sunday, a day after rebels attacked government positions in the southern city.

Much of Daraa has been reduced to rubble, and the two sides are exchanging fire through the shells of buildings, footage released by Syrian military media and the al-Qaida-linked Abaa News Agency showed.

Opposition activist Ahmad al-Masalmeh recorded 90 missile and bomb strikes by government forces as of Sunday afternoon. Footage from the Syrian military media showed clouds of smoke and dust rising over the city.

At least 31 fighters had been killed in the clashes since late Friday, with fatalities distributed nearly evenly between the two sides, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a monitoring group.

The fighting has underscored the frailty of the de-escalation agreement brokered by Russia, Turkey and Iran a month ago. The three powers are supposed to guarantee cease-fires across four zones in Syria, including Daraa. Russia said it would delineate the four zones by Sunday, but no announcement has been made.

Earlier in the weekend, rebels, including al-Qaida-linked fighters, attacked government and allied positions in the city’s Manshiyeh district.

“The regime sent 200 of its men to Manshiyeh yesterday. The fighters were afraid of an operation, so they attacked first,” al-Masalmeh said.

Casualties could not be independently verified, but a rebel operations room said several Hezbollah fighters had been killed. The Lebanese militant group has deployed thousands of its fighters to Syria in support of President Bashar Assad’s forces.

The Observatory said at least three different parts of the city came under rocket and missile attack by government

forces on Sunday, and that rebels returned fire.

Syrian military media showed footage of planes and artillery striking built-up areas.

The government and its allies have sent reinforcements to the city, including at least seven tanks and 20 other armed vehicles, according to al-Masalmeh, who said rebels could see the government’s troop movements on the highway connecting Daraa to Damascus.

Daraa was the site of some of the earliest demonstrations in 2011 against the Assad family’s

four-decade rule. A violent government crackdown and the rise of an armed insurgency eventually plunged the country into civil war.

The fighting has displaced half of Syria’s population and claimed about 400,000 lives.

Daraa’s population was around 100,000 before the war.

Elsewhere in Syria, the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces on Sunday reported capturing a third dam from Islamic State militants on the Euphrates River as they approached the northern city of Raqqa, the militants’ self-declared capital. A spokesman for the Syrian Defense Forces said Saturday that the group would launch its battle for Raqqa “within days.”

The Kurdish-led group aims to establish an autonomous zone along the Turkish border.