UPDATE - Syria: Regime forces shell Daraa after short lull

*UPDATES WITH CIVILIANS STRANDED AT JORDANIAN BORDER

By Laith al-Junaidi

AT-TURRAH, Jordan (AA) – Regime forces resumed bombardment of the opposition-held Daraa province in southwestern Syria on Saturday, after a short lull.

On Friday, an official Jordanian source said a truce has been hammered out between the warring parties in Daraa province as a first step towards reconciliation.

However, sounds of explosions and shelling were heard on Saturday, according to an Anadolu Agency correspondent in the region.

Meanwhile, around 100,000 civilians remain stranded along Syria’s border with Jordan after fleeing their homes in the bombed-out Daraa.

“We appeal to Jordan’s King Abdulla II to open the border and allow us in to save our elders, children and women,” Haj Abo Mohamed, a resident of Daraa’s countryside, told Anadolu Agency.

“We have been living one of the worst humanitarian catastrophes, however, the whole world turns a blind eye to our endless suffering,” he lamented.

In the last several days, Daraa has been the target of intense air and ground attacks by the Bashar al-Assad regime and its allies, who have advanced deep into Daraa’s eastern countryside, capturing the towns of Busra al-Harir and Nahtah.

At least 97 civilians have been killed and thousands displaced since the regime offensive began two weeks ago.

Following peace talks held last year in Kazakh capital Astana, Daraa was designated a “de-escalation zone” in which acts of aggression are expressly prohibited.

Syria has only just begun to emerge from a devastating conflict that began in 2011 when the Assad regime cracked down on demonstrators with unexpected ferocity.