Eight south Syria towns return to regime control under deals: monitor

At least eight battered rebel-held towns in southern Syria on Saturday returned to regime control under Russian-brokered deals after nearly two weeks of bombardment, a Britain-based monitor said. Since June 19, the Damascus regime has pressed a deadly bombardment campaign in southern Syria in a bid to retake the strategic area bordering Jordan and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. The agreements for the eight towns were reached even as regime air strikes on Saturday pounded other opposition holdouts in the wider southern province of Daraa, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor said.