Waves of strikes pound south Syria after talks fail

DARAA: Waves of air strikes pounded rebel-held areas of southern Syria on Thursday as pro-regime forces unleashed their most intensive bombing campaign yet in a two-week-old offensive.The renewed assault came after the failure on Wednesday of Russian-brokered talks to end the offensive in Daraa province, which has killed dozens and forced tens of thousands from their homes.The United Nations Security Council is set to hold a closed-door emergency meeting on the offensive later Thursday, but world powers have been able to do little to halt the onslaught.Throughout the day on Thursday, hundreds of missiles, crude barrel bombs, and air strikes by Russia and Syria slammed into rebel-held towns. An AFP correspondent on the edge of the rebel-held south of the city of Daraa, the divided provincial capital, said the bombing was the heaviest since the launch of the Russian-backed offensive on June 19. “From last night until now, Russian airplanes are pursuing a scorched earth policy,” said Hussein Abazeed, spokesman for the joint rebel command for the south.“This is to force rebels to return to negotiations.”Bahaa Mahameed, a doctor working in Daraa’s western countryside, said wounded civilians were streaming into his clinic after several days of calm. “The warplanes are bombing like crazy. We can’t even find a safe place to put the wounded,” Mahameed told AFP. Samer Homssi fled to an olive grove on the outskirts of Daraa with his wife and four children because of fierce shelling. “The bombardment has not stopped for one moment since the announcement that the negotiations failed,” the 47-year-old told AFP.The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said bombing hit the town of Tafas in the northwest of Daraa province and areas near the Jordanian border.

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