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.