Special to WorldTribune.com

NICOSIA — Forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad have advanced along the rebel-held Golan Heights.

Officials and opposition sources said the Syrian Army and a government-sponsored militia have captured areas of the Golan Heights near the border with Syria.

The officials cited Rasm Al Hur and Rasm Al Sad, south of the provincial capital of Kuneitra, attacked by both ground and air forces on Feb. 22.

“Regime forces bombarded the town of Al Heja and areas in the southern countryside of Kuneitra,” the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

The Assad offensive was said to be the first in the Golan in 2014. Syrian Observatory said the Assad-sponsored National Defense Forces were battling Islamic rebels around Al Heja, with losses reported on both sides.

The Assad regime was also said to have been reinforcing positions in Kuneitra, until 2014 the only city on the Golan that was not under rebel control. The Golan contains the United Nations Disengagement and Observers Force along the frontier with Syria.

It was not clear whether the Assad offensive was linked to the Free Syrian Army. On Feb. 17, the FSA’s Supreme Military Council replaced its commander with Brig. Gen. Abdul Ilah Al Bashir, a Syrian Army commander in
Kuneitra until his defection in 2012.

The Assad regime has also intensified operations in the southern Syrian
province of Dera near the Jordanian border. Islamic militias, including Al
Qaida’s Nusra Front for the Defense of the Levant, and Ahrar Al Sham were
said to have been attacking Syrian Army troops in Dera.

“We will target and hit eight military zones belonging to [the army’s]
61th Brigade,” the Islamic militias said. “All these zones are very
strategic in western Dera.”

  Al Heja, Assad forces advance on rebel stronghold in Golan Heights, Free Syrian Army, Kuneitra, Syrian Observatory for Human Rights