At least six civilians including three children were killed in a regime artillery attack in Syria’s southern province of Daraa where the regime experiences difficulty in regaining control.
The regime clashed with former military opponents in Daraa where it struggles to control the region after a Russian-mediated cease-fire agreement in July 2018.
After the intense attacks, tensions have escalated in the region, said local sources.
Bashar Assad regime forces tried on Wednesday to enter the town of Djalin in the western countryside of Daraa, where former military opponent forces were located.
The opposition delegation was attacked by the regime forces. Two opposition representatives were killed and one person was injured during the attack. Upon this incident, former opponents in the region clashed with regime soldiers trying to enter the town.
The regime, which lost eight soldiers and militants in the conflict, retreated and carried out an artillery attack on the town.
Starting with a peaceful protest in Daraa province on March 15, 2011, the civilian resistance against Assad's rule quickly escalated into a civil war due to the regime's violence against the protesters. Since then, the regime has been using forcible displacement, constant attacks and blockades as a systematic weapon against civilians.
Being one of the participants in the initial protests in Daraa back in 2011, 70-year-old Abu Naim, who is one of the displaced civilians who had to leave his hometown in Eastern Ghouta in 2018, said their movement was truly peaceful and yet, the regime's insistence on violence led incidents to reach points beyond imagination.
In the end, millions of people have been displaced and forced to live with the constant longing for their hometowns while hundreds of thousands have been killed by the regime attacks.
The opposition in Daraa reached a deal with Russian military mediators whereby the opposition fighters agreed to hand over their weapons, in a major victory for Assad in July 2018.
Those who wanted to stay in the region signed a compromise deal and handed their heavy weapons to the regime forces, while the groups who refused to sign the deal were forced to migrate to the north of the country.
Although the Assad regime forces declared that they have completely taken over Daraa, the assassination and attack attempts over the regime's military and security points in the central and rural areas of Darra, have been carried out by unidentified people.
Dozens of regime elements, including high-level military officers have died.
Syria's war has killed more than 350,000 people and displaced millions since it started in 2011 with the brutal repression of anti-government protests.