While most of the fighting in Syria in recent months has been in the nation’s north, more serious fighting has erupted today in Syria’s southernmost region, along a border crossing into Jordan near the key town of Daraa.
Rebels hold the border itself, and have been trying to move deeper into Daraa, but are facing heavy resistance from the Syrian military on the ground, and dozens of Russian airstrikes have been reported to try to keep the rebels from getting any further into the country.
And while in northern Syria, some of the heaviest fighting has been between a “moderate” rebel faction including the Free Syrian Army (FSA) and al-Qaeda’s Nusra Front, down in Daraa the two sides are fighting alongside one another against the military.
Jordan long hosted rebel factions trained by US forces, and the rebels at one point controlled a broad swathes of the border. A lot of the border has since been lost, with the important crossing they are trying to surge out from one of their last big holdings in the area.