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Agencies
BEIRUT/AMMAN
The Syrian army and its allies seized control of at least 30 km (19 miles) of Syria's border with Jordan from rebels in an attack on Thursday, two rebel groups and a Syrian military source said.
A military media unit run by Hezbollah, a close ally of the Syrian government, said the army and its allies had gained control over all checkpoints and border posts on the border in Sweida, one of four Syrian provinces that border Jordan.
Rebel groups, some of them backed by Western and Arab states, still control much of Syria's southwestern frontier with Jordan and Israel. Sweida province was not included in a US-Russian brokered ceasefire that took effect in nearby areas of the southwest in July.
Said Saef, spokesman for the Western-backed rebel group Martyr Ahmed Abdo brigade, said Thursday's attack came from two sides in Sweida's east countryside.
"Most of the eastern Sweida countryside is now in the hands of the regime,"he added.
The army had advanced to the border and retaken posts it abandoned in the early years of the conflict when rebels took over large parts of south western Syria.
"They are now on the Jordanian border and back to outposts they had evacuated early in the conflict,"said Saef.
Another rebel spokesman said the army gains were helped by a sudden pull-back by Jaish al-Ashair rebel group, which is backed by Jordan and had been responsible for patrolling that stretch of the border.
The Syrian military source said the army and its allies had taken more than 30 km of the border, and described the advance as a"big success".
Syrian state media said the capture closes major smuggling points used by rebels to bring in weapons and fighters from Jordan into the war-torn country.
Syrian state TV reported that the troops captured an area of 1,300 square kilometers (502 square miles), in addition to some strategic hills.
The opposition's Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights confirmed the push by the troops, saying the government took advantage of a truce in nearby Daraa province to launch an offensive in the adjacent region of Sweida that borders Jordan.
The push toward the Jordan border came as Syrian troops clashed for the third consecutive day on another front line, this one with the Islamic State group in the central province of Homs.
IS militants used suicide car bombs in the counteroffensive on Syrian troops marching east toward the province of Deir el-Zour, which borders Iraq.
The Observatory said the fighting between Syrian troops and IS has killed 48 on the government side since Wednesday. It added that 35 IS fighters were also killed in the battle, including five who blew themselves up in their vehicles.
The military media agency released a video showing bodies said to be of slain IS fighters in the area.
