DAMASCUS, July 2 (Xinhua) -- The rebel groups in Syria's southern province of Daraa are divided between those who want to reconcile with the government and ultra-radical groups, which want to continue fighting amid a wide-scale military campaign in that area.
The state news agency SANA said Monday that the rebels in the town of Busra al-Sham in the eastern countryside of Daraa have started handing over their heavy weapons to the Syrian army as part of the "reconciliation" process that was agreed upon in that town a day earlier.
The hand-over process in Busra al-Sham is expected to be completed on Tuesday, said SANA.
This comes as several towns have accepted to embark on a reconciliation process with the Syrian army in Daraa, while other towns have been retaken through military action.
A day earlier, the rebels in Busra al-Sham and the town of Jizeh accepted to reconcile with the government.
The reconciliation deal has been proposed by Russia, which is on an ongoing negotiation process with various rebel groups in Daraa in a bid to reach an agreement that could see the return of Daraa under the government control with less military action.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor group said the Russian proposal demands the rebels in Daraa to surrender their heavy and medium-ranged weapons while keeping the light arms.
Also, the rebels will hoist the Syrian government flag over the government buildings as a prelude to having the government institutions back to operate in the rebel-held areas in Daraa.
The Britain-based watchdog group said the talks are backed by Jordan, which has a sway on the militants in that area near the Jordanian border.
As for the border crossing with Jordan, the Russians proposed that the Syrian customs and police will recontrol the Nasib border point with Jordan.
But the observatory said Monday that some rebel groups accepted the proposal while others, mainly the al-Qaida-linked Nusra Front, otherwise known as the Levant Liberation Committee, has rejected the proposal.
The proposal for the Nusra Front was their evacuation to rebel-held areas in northern Syria, said the observatory, adding that the leader of the group in Daraa rejected the evacuation proposal and called for a general mobilization to fight the government forces till the end.
Meanwhile, the observatory said the Syrian Air Force hasn't conducted airstrikes in Daraa for 45 hours, except for the town of Tafas in the eastern countryside of Daraa, where the rebels rejected the Russian-backed deal.
However, shelling and battles continued in other areas in the western countryside of Daraa, according to the observatory report.
The Syrian army started the operation against the rebels in Daraa over 11 days ago, with the aim of entirely capturing the rebel-held areas due to the strategic location of Daraa near Jordan.
The state media said the military operations are going in tandem with the reconciliation efforts, which explains the situation where several towns accepted the entry of the Syrian army without battles.
The Syrian army is fighting the rebels, including the Islamic State (IS) and the Nusra Front, in the countryside of Daraa, as well as the in the countryside of the nearby province of Sweida and the Quneitra province near the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
Daraa has a symbolic significance as it was the birthplace of the Syrian war that erupted in 2011, and securing it will be a big victory for the Syrian army both symbolically and militarily as the rebels have used the Jordanian border to bring in arms and fighters throughout the Syrian war
The observatory said Monday that the number of civilians that have been displaced as a result of the flaring situation in Daraa rose to 300,000.
It said that 58 percent of Daraa has become under the government-control through the battles and the reconciliations, which are basically a pardon for those who hand over their weapons and agree to abandon the insurgency.
