Syria's army gained ground from rebels in the south Tuesday in what a monitoring group described as a large-scale offensive in the region backed by Hezbollah fighters against insurgents including Al-Qaeda's Syrian wing.

Syrian media and rebel sources said Tuesday that battles raged in several areas of southern Syria.

Unlike the Observatory, a Syrian military source said the army was leading the offensive.

A reporter for the Lebanese Al-Mayadeen news channel, which has embedded its journalists with the Syrian army, said from Qunaitra that the large-scale army operation had cut off an important supply route for rebels from Jordan to rebel-controlled areas west of Damascus.

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