Amateur videos posted to social media websites purported to show air strikes on rebel positions in Homs province of Syria on Wednesday (January 27), as well as intense fighting for control of the strategic town of Sheikh Maskin.
Fighting raged as plans to hold the first negotiations to end the civil war in Syria for two years were in doubt.
The main Syrian opposition group said on Wednesday that they would not show up for talks in Geneva unless the United Nations responded to demands for a halt to attacks on civilian areas.
The Syrian government has already agreed to join the talks that U.N. envoy Staffan de Mistura hopes to convene in an indirect format in Geneva on Friday.
Washington urged Syrian opposition groups to attend.
Preparations have been beset by difficulties, including a dispute over who should be invited to negotiate with President Bashar al-Assad’s government as it claws back territory with help from Russia and Iran.
Saudi-backed opposition council High Negotiations Committee (HNC) says attacks on civilian areas must stop before any negotiations.
The attacks appeared to be continuing in a video said to have been shot on Wednesday.
In the video, thick smoke is seen rising from the town of Rastan in Homs province following what is said to be air strikes on rebel held areas by forces loyal to Assad.
The video shows debris and damaged buildings following the purported attack, as well as a man carrying a wounded child away from the scene.
Earlier this week, the Syrian army recaptured from insurgents a strategic town in the southern province of Deraa after fierce fighting, securing its supply routes from the capital to the south, a monitoring group said.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the fighting is now outside the western parts of the town of Sheikh Maskin, which lies at a crossroads linking the provinces of Suwaida, Quneitra and Damascus to the southern part of the country. It also links eastern and western Deraa.
The army launched its offensive against insurgents in Sheikh Maskin late last month and was supported by dozens of air strikes carried out by Russian and Syrian warplanes.
Capturing Sheikh Maskin would allow the army to press forward toward al-Harra hill which is the highest point in Deraa.
In a video said to have been shot on Tuesday (January 26), fighters said to be from the rebel Free Syrian Army (FSA) are seen firing rockets towards Sheikh Maskin in an attempt to recapture the important town.
Smoke rises up from the town as more explosions are heard.
Southern Syria is the last major stronghold of the mainstream insurgents who have been weakened elsewhere by Islamic State in the east and north, and gains by the Nusra Front, al-Qaeda’s wing in Syria, in the northwest.
In another video, a fighter, said to belong to the FSA, is seen making an emotional plea for greater support from Arab leaders in the fight against Assad’s forces.
“I swear to God, all the Arab leaders must kiss the feet of the fighters who were left in Sheikh Maskin, I swear to God they will, I swear to God they will. The world is asleep, where are the Muslims? There are no more Muslims. Come see what is happening in Sheikh Maskin, God help us,” he said.
“This is the last group to pull out of Sheikh Maskin, there are many out there, we don’t know what happened to them, we don’t know if they were martyred or not. God help us.”
However, diplomacy has so far failed to resolve a conflict that has forced millions from their homes.
With the war raging unabated, the latest diplomatic effort has been overshadowed by increased tension between Saudi Arabia and Iran.
Russian air strikes that began on Sept. 30 have tilted the war Assad’s way after major setbacks earlier in 2015 brought rebels close to coastal areas. (Reuters)
