PHOTO: Smoke rises from barrel bombs on Darayya near Damascus

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The Assad regime is continuing the barrel bombing of Darayya, 12 km (7.5 miles) southwest of Syria’s capital Damascus, four days after a token delivery of aid to the besieged town.

Early Friday, the regime countered international demands for an end to sieges by allowing a nine-truck convoy with food, the first such assistance since November 2012. About 480 parcels were handed out, sufficient to feed 2,400 of Darayya’s 4,000 to 8,000 residents for a few weeks.

Hours later, the bombing began. The Darayya Local Council said on Monday that 132 barrel bombs had been dropped since Friday.

A compilation of the some of the attacks in recent days:

Meanwhile, the siege has been renewed. Rola Hamada said her family was subsisting on any vegetables that can be found in a garden and a pound of rice from the local council’s aid office:

“I have four kids and two grandsons, and when they see food, it’s like they are seeing it for the first time.

My grandson doesn’t know what fruit is. He was born in the city while it was under siege, so these conditions are all they know.

Residents and activists say that the regime has further tightened any supplies of food by bombing Darraya’s small plots of land for crops.

Two weeks ago, President Assad’s advisor Bouthaina Shaaban told an audience in Washington, as the regime continued to try and block assistance while pro-Assad forces attacked from the air and on the ground:

Nobody is starving in Darayya. I can tell you that Darayya is producing peas and beans and food and wild berries that is enough for the entire country. It is a very fertile land.

The regime — supported by Russia, Iran, and Hezbollah — is trying to recapture the area southwest of Damascus. Failing that, it is trying to force agreements leading to the removal of any arms and rebels from the towns.

Earlier this month, the local council in Moadamiya, the town closest to Darayya, agreed in principle to the removal of barriers and the evacuation of armed men in return for assurances of food and supplies. Moadamiya has also been besieged since 2012, despite a truce agreement in early 2014 that was supposed to lift blockades.

The regime has pursued the “surrender or starve” strategy since it lost many areas around the capital in 2012. It has continued to resist the demands of the international community to relax the sieges.

After a now-collapsed February 27 cessation of hostilities, the regime briefly allowed assistance into some areas, but it renewed the blockades in April and May, with the UN able to aid only 5% of Syria’s hard-to-reach population.

In mid-May, the International Syria Support Group mandated the UN’s World Food Program to begin airdrops by June 1, but the UN backed away from the initiative, saying that assistance would have to have the Assad regime’s consent.

Rebels Advance Again on Southern Aleppo Front

The rebel bloc Jaish al-Fatah has advanced again on the front south of Aleppo city, threatening to take the village of Kalasah.

The rebels, who have won three significant victories against Iranian-led forces in the past two months, renewed their offensive on Tuesday morning. They struck from territory east of Khan Tuman —- an area seized earlier this month — towards Kalasah, reportedly inflicting heavy casualties on the defenders.

Battles are ongoing tonight.

If rebels take Kalasah, it could expose the town of al-Hadher to the south.

Al-Hadher was the major gain of the regime-Russian-Iranian-Hezbollah offensive last autumn. Rebels and the jihadists of Jabhat al-Nusra have now retaken most of the territory lost in those attacks, enabled by thousands of Russian airstrikes.

Video: Journalists al-Abdallah and al-Issa Wounded in Russian-Regime Bombing

Journalist Hadi al-Abdallah and cameraman Khaled al-Issa have been wounded in the latest Russian and regime bombing of Aleppo Province:

Kurds Refuse Opposition Request for Joint Defense in Northwest Syria

The Syrian Kurdish National Council has rejected the request of Anas al-Abda, for joint defense of the town of Azaz near the Turkish border.

The KNC, which oversees Syrian Peshmerga forces, said they will not deploy forces outside of the areas considered to be part of Kurdistan.

Majdal Delli, a member of the Kurdish Unity Party, said the Peshmerga “have only one aim: to protect the Kurdish areas”.

Earlier this month, the Islamic State threatened Azaz when it advanced and cut off the town from Mare’ to the southeast, on the frontline of the ISIS war with Syrian rebels. A rebel coalition fended off the Islamic State’s attacks on Mare’ and has regained some of the lost area.

Since last year, the Kurdish National Council has been overshadowed by the Kurdistan Democratic Union Party (PYD), whose YPG militia has gained territory from the Islamic State in northeast Syria and has fought rebels in the northwest.

The YPG is the leading militia in the Syrian Democratic Forces, formed last autumn and supported by US weapons, ammunition, special forces, and airstrikes. The SDF, having advanced westward across the Euphrates River, has surrounded Manbij, ISIS’s main position in Aleppo Province.

An official of the KNC, which has had a tense relationship with the PYD and the YPG militia, said there has been no decision yet on whether to join the SDF

However, Ibrahim Biro, the head of the KNC, indicated, “[The SDF] have a good relation with the Syrian regime, that’s why we cannot join them.”

Meanwhile, the PYD rejected any connection with the Syrian National Coalition, saying that its president Abda is a member of the Muslim Brotherhood and follows Turkish and Saudi demands.

“He wants to pressure our project in Rojava through Peshmerga forces, but will not be successful,” said Ibrahim Kurdo, head of foreign relations in the PYD-led administration in northern Syria.

Meanwhile, the local council of Tal Rifaat in northern Aleppo Province has said that it will not concede the town to the Kurdish YPG militia.

The YPG occupied Tal Rifaat, 40 km (25 miles) north of Aleppo city, during an advance into opposition territory in February.