Rebel-held south Syria hit by heaviest strikes yet

The Syrian government and its Russian ally pounded rebel-held areas of the southern province of Daraa today with the heaviest air strikes of a two-week-old offensive, an AFP correspondent and a monitor reported.

"Hundreds" of missiles and barrel bombs were unleashed before dawn by both Syrian and Russian aircraft, after talks on rebel surrenders broke down yesterday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

The intensity of the bombardment allowed government forces to seize control of a security checkpoint on the Jordanian border for the first time in more than three years, the Britain-based monitoring group said.

Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman said the bombardment was an "attempt to make the rebels back down after they refused to subject themselves to the Russian terms for a ceasefire."