SYRIAN insurgents launched a new offensive on the southern city of Daraa yesterday in rejection of next week’s peace talks.

The Islamist group Ahrar as-Sham and factions of the Free Syrian Army (FSA) were among the Western-backed groups who joined the al-Qaida affiliated Levant Conquest Front (LCF) in the assault.

They used several suicide vehicle bombs to try and break through government lines in the north of the city near the Jordanian border.

But troops said they soon repulsed the offensive and launched a counter-attack.

The Syrian Arab Red Crescent said rebel shelling of residential neighbourhoods injured at least three civilians.

Neither side had reported any gains by the time the Morning Star went to print.

Ahrar as-Sham, numbering up to 25,000 militants after six other factions merged with it last month, rejected the December 30 ceasefire brokered by Russia, Iran and Turkey.

In the far north of the country, Turkish troops and their FSA and Ahrar as-Sham allies entered the centre of the Isis-held town of al-Bab.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told journalists yesterday it was only “a matter of time” before the allied forces took full control of al-Bab which they had “besieged from all fronts.”

Clashes in al-Bab have proved particularly challenging for Turkish forces with one soldier killed in the Sunday offensive and three injured. This brings the death toll to 67 since Turkey invaded Syrian territory in August last year.

Amid the fighting, preparations for the February 20 peace talks in Geneva continued.

The Saudi-convened high negotiations committee of militant forces met in the Saudi Arabian capital of Riyadh over the weekend, naming Turkish-based Syrian Republican Party chairman Mohammad Sabra as their new chief negotiator in place of the Army of Islam’s Mohammed Alloush.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said the US, sidelined in December, was welcome at the negotiating table.

But if US President Donald Trump was serious about fighting terrorism he must support not only the Russian air force contingent in Syria, but “units of Hezbollah, which rely on Iranian support,” Mr Lavrov said.