Air strikes and fear drive thousands south from Daraa towards Jordan 

Humanitarian officials warn of fresh crisis amid reports of 70,000 people on the move towards Syria's closed southwestern border

Syrian refugees at the eastern part of the Jordanian border in 2014 (AFP/UNHCR)

Sara Elizabeth Williams-Friday 12 February 2016

AMMAN - Around 70,000 people are on the move in southern Syria, driven out of opposition-held towns and villages by an ongoing barrage of Russian airstrikes on Daraa province.

The crisis along southern Syria’s agricultural belt is an eerie reflection of the disaster unravelling in northern Aleppo province, where tens of thousands of refugees, fleeing Russian air strikes, have piled up against a closed border gate. In both cases, the scale of displacement carries a note of caution: this is bad, but it could get so much worse.

The fear of what might happen were the scenario to further deteriorate may have contributed to Thursday night’s news that key international leaders had agreed to work towards establishing a ceasefire. But for those in the path of unrelenting air strikes, any respite will be too little, too late. 

In southern Syria, humanitarians and residents say strikes have primarily targeted civilian infrastructure in opposition-held areas, destroying schools, homes and hospitals and leaving communities in tatters. Unlike the double-tap strikes and barrel bombs unleashed by the Syrian government, the Russian strikes come in long, highly destructive waves, say local activists in Daraa province who called the scale of destruction “unprecedented”.

While the refugees in the north can hope that Turkey will be persuaded to re-open its border gates and allow Syrians in, the southern refugees have no such illusions: Jordan, to the south, hasn’t admitted refugees along this stretch of border since 2013, and finding shelter in Israel, to the west, is unthinkable. 

The devolution of security in Daraa province comes after years of heavy barrel bombings in opposition-held areas – now around 60 percent of the province, down from 65 percent just a month ago.

Russian sorties here began in September 2015 and increased sharply in late December, pummelling Sheikh Miskeen, a crossroads town north of Daraa city, with 500 airstrikes over a month-long battle that yielded the government’s first significant gain in the south in more than a year.

By the time government loyalists captured Sheikh Miskeen, it was mostly destroyed and completely depopulated, but the win secured a government supply line to Daraa city and, perhaps more significantly, challenged the opposition’s long-held dominance in the province.

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