At least 45,000 flee as Syrian forces push south

BEIRUT >> Syrian government forces advanced through southwestern Syria on Tuesday as tens of thousands of civilians fled Syrian and Russian airstrikes, piling on trucks and heading deeper into rebel-held territory.

With violence ramping up, diplomats and experts warn that the pocket could become a geopolitical tinderbox capable of destabilizing neighboring Jordan and triggering a wider conflict between Israel and Iran. A cease-fire agreement between the United States, Russia and Jordan had largely kept the peace for months while the Syrian army concentrated on rebel-held regions closer to its capital, Damascus.

But with those conquered, Syrian President Bashar Assad’s forces have now turned their attention to Syria’s southwest, with help in recent days from Russian airstrikes.

On Tuesday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said that forces loyal to Assad had taken control of the town of Busra al-Harir and the nearby Lajat area, prompting an exodus of families and cutting the rebels’ stronghold in half.

“Warplanes and helicopters continued hovering in the skies above Daraa province,” said the group’s director, Rami Abdulrahman, placing the number of airstrikes in the hundreds.

Relief workers said hospitals had been targeted, too. According to the Union of Medical Care and Relief Organizations, which supports medical staff in opposition areas, an ambulance driver was killed Tuesday in Busra al-Harir as he ferried patients to a clinic.

“Nothing can justify his killing,” said Ghanem Tayara, the organization’s chairman. “It is beyond comprehension that after six years medical workers are still being killed with impunity.”

The Trump administration has frequently cited the southwest cease-fire, which came into force last summer, as evidence that Russia can make and adhere to agreements. But it remains unclear whether Moscow has the ability or willingness to impose its will on the Syrian government and its Iranian and militia allies.

The United Nations said Tuesday that at least 45,000 people have fled government advances in recent days.