• Rebels say Russian air support is giving regime troops an advantage
• Top commander blames international community for not intervening

Under Russian air cover, regime troops are not only advancing in northern Syria, they have been making gains in the south too, according to CNN, Feb. 16 report.
After weeks of raging battles, late last month, rebel fighters were forced to withdraw from Al Sheikh Maskin, a small but strategic town in the Daraa province. Regime troops now control the crucial town, which lies on a military supply route from Damascus to the south.

In an interview with CNN in Jordan, Bashar al-Zouabi, a top rebel commander on the southern front, says the Free Syrian Army (FSA) were able to confront regime forces and their Iranian, Lebanese and Afghan militias on the ground. But without the anti-aircraft weapons they have been requesting, they were not able to withstand the Russian air campaign and were forced to withdraw.
“The international community (with its silence) gave Russia the green light to kill the Syrian people as it pleases,” says al-Zouabi.
The fighting and bombardment in the south continues and earlier this month, the Free Syrian Army gave up the town of Athman.
“We can only blame the so-called friends of the Syrian people, who are sitting back as spectators and watching us getting killed day and night,” says al-Zouabi.
“The Russians are killing in the north and the south. They claimed to have come to Syria to fight ISIS but most of their strikes have targeted the moderate Syrian opposition.”
The majority of rebels in Daraa, al-Zouabi says, are moderate opposition forces fighting under the banner of the FSA — and he says they are the ones who have been the main target of Russian airstrikes.
Al-Zouabi says regime troops are moving to try and retake the border with Jordan from the FSA.
Meanwhile, the FSA commander blames inaction from the international community — especially the U.S. He wants weapons he says they’ve been promised, and safe zones were civilians can take shelter.
In and around the city of Daraa, al-Zouabi describes a civilian population living in a state of fear. Even those who stayed through battles and barrel bombs have now been forced to flee because of the airstrikes that he says “go on day and night.”