Syrian troops kill 11 jihadis in Daraa province

Syrian troops killed 11 fighters of jihadi groups during clashes in the southern province of Daraa Saturday, a monitoring group said.

The clashes were raging in the contested Shaikh Miskin area in the countryside of Daraa province, as part of the rebels' wide-scale offensive to control that strategic area in Daraa, Xinhua quoted the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based watchdog group that relies on a network of activists on ground, as saying.

The state news agency SANA said the Syrian forces destroyed three rebel positions in the towns of Barqah and Dali, in the vicinity of Shaikh Miskin.

SANA said that Shaikh Miskin, 22 km from Daraa, was subject to "systematic" rebel attacks due to its strategic location that links several areas in the southern region. It said tens of rebels were also killed in the town of Dair al-Adas north of Daraa.

The Al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front and like-minded groups have been on an offensive to recapture the government-controlled areas in Daraa bordering Jordan.

The Nusra fighters attempted to attack al-Nasib border crossing between Daraa and Jordan, but have so far failed to seize control of it.