Senior Syrian regime officers killed in Daraa attack amid growing violence

Two senior regime officers were killed in an attack on a military vehicle near the town of Herak in the restive southern Syrian province of Daraa, in the latest in a series of attacks on regime soldiers.

The officers were from the regime's 52nd brigade, and were identified by the "Hauran Independent Media Activists' Group" as Colonel Hamid Makhlouf, the leader of the brigade, and Colonel Mahmoud Habib, the brigade's planning officer.

On Thursday armed men attacked a military vehicle belonging to Assad regime forces on the road between the towns of Izraa and Busra al-Harir, killing three soldiers and injuring a number of others, the Syrian news website Zaman al-Wasl reported.

The militants used light and medium weapons in the attack and escaped afterwards, according to Zaman al-Wasl.

Regime forces stormed the town of Maliha al-Atsh, near Busra al-Harir, after the attack and arrested six young men but were unable to find the men who launched the attack.

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A rebel group calling itself the "Hauran Revolutionaries" claimed responsibility for Thursday's attack, saying that it was in revenge for the killing of a former rebel commander several weeks ago.

Daraa province was one of the first areas to join the Syrian uprising against the Assad regime in 2011. Most of the area was held by rebel forces until it was captured by the regime and Russia in July 2018.

Since then, the situation in the province has been increasingly unstable, with frequent guerrila-style attacks on regime forces and officials, assassinations of former rebels, and arrests of activists by the regime in violation of a ceasefire agreement.

In other incidents, a regime officer was killed by rebels in the town of Tal Shihab and two rebels on a motorcycle attacked and wounded a regime soldier at a checkpoint near the city of Nawa in Daraa province but were later captured by regime forces.

On Wednesday, four regime soldiers were also killed by rebels.