There is damn little if any verified news in regards to the Syrian conflict. The main rumors that flirt with being confirmed that I know of are as follows.Syrian rebels said they overran an army garrison that defends the main southern border crossing with Jordan on Friday and vowed to press on to take control of the major transit route.
Fighters from the Free Syrian Army said they captured the Um al-Mayathen post on the main Damascus-Jordan highway in heavy fighting overnight that ended a siege that lasted more than a week. Dozens died in the clashes they said.
"It (the garrison) is a major defense and now we will lay siege to the border crossing and cut their (the Damascus government's) supply lines," Abu Omar, commander of the Lions of the Sunna Brigade, told Reuters by phone.
The army post is several kilometers (miles) from Syria's' Nassib border crossing which, before Syria's two-year-old civil war broke out, funneled billions of dollars of trade between Gulf countries, Turkey and Europe.
Syria's southern provinces bordering Jordan and Israel have become an increasingly significant battleground as the capital comes under pressure, with President Bashar al-Assad's forces and his loyalist militias hitting back hard.
The intensified fighting has also led to an unprecedented influx of refugees through Jordan's 370 km (230 mile) border with Syria this year.
Rebels have stepped up fighting for control of the border area and the nearby town of Deraa in the last two months, gaining territory and capturing several bases.
They have also overrun several towns near the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, fuelling tensions in the sensitive military zone.
Only two weeks ago they seized an air defense base near the strategic southern international highway, bolstering access to supply routes to the capital Damascus.
Rebels say their capture of large amounts of weapons, ammunition and vehicles has helped them to maintain an offensive after a long period in which the southern border area was quiet compared to northern and eastern parts of Syria.
"The latest gains have given us more weapons, helping the free army to mount even more attacks on key army positions," said Abu Salim, from Liwa Tawheed al Janoob brigade.
Jordan has stepped up security and deployed more troops to the border, a Jordanian army source said.
Diplomatic and regional intelligence sources also said Amman was allowing limited supplies of light arms to moderate rebel groups opposed to the Nusra front, an Islamist militant group suspected of links to al Qaeda and blacklisted by the United States as a "terrorist group".
Russia doubled down on backing Assad sending several thousand advisers ("advisers"?) to help him out.
At that point the rebels factions drove in on Damascus and were sucked into a battle that they for the most part lost. It is assumed this was a Russian idea but there is no proof of that. However losses were heavy enough that the Assad factions couldn't follow up on it.
The Arabs and the CIA (rumors also say the Poles, Indians, Chinese, Israelis, Hollywood (both Jews and non-Jews), Lizardpeople and MENSA) are sending weapons to various rebel factions they like.
The rebels have no real unified command and control and so making a common strategy is utterly impossible but since then the rebels have controlled large amounts of the countryside with Assad holding the core parts of most of the larger cities.
Various factions have been trying to expand their zones of control, some of them hitting on the idea that if they can cut off and surround the cities they can wear down the government faction.
This would assume that some of them are taking that idea seriously.
