Rebel fighters captured a major base from the Syrian army in the south of the country on Tuesday, rebels and a monitoring group said, a setback for President Bashar al-Assad reflecting the mounting pressure on him after recent losses elsewhere.
Syrian officials could not immediately be reached for comment. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a British-based monitoring group, said a nearby town and a village had fallen to the rebels in addition to the base, Liwa 52.
"In under six hours today, the Free Syrian Army’s Southern Front successfully completed an operation to liberate Brigade 52," said Issam al-Rayyes, spokesman for the "Southern Front" alliance of rebel groups. Liwa 52, or the 52nd Brigade, is one of the biggest Syrian army bases in the area.
"This is the last regime-held area to fall in eastern Daraa, and acted as a reinforcement base to support regime airbases in Sweida," Rayyes said in a statement, adding that at least 67 government troops including seven officers, were killed.
The southern region near the border with Jordan and Israel is one of the areas where insurgents have inflicted significant defeats on Assad in the last three months, notably by capturing the Nasib border crossing with Jordan on April 1.
Less than 100-km (60 miles) south of Damascus, the area is one of the last major footholds of rebel groups that are not dominated by hardline jihadists such as Islamic State and the Nusra Front, al Qaeda's Syrian arm, although Nusra also has a presence there.