Syrian army calls on opposition militants to lay down arms

Syrian army on Sunday called on the armed militants fighting against the government in several Syrian areas to lay down their weapons, state news agency SANA reported.

In a statement addressing the rebels in southern province of Daraa, the eastern countryside of the capital Damascus and the northern province of Aleppo, the military urged the rebels to "hasten to reconcile with the government and return to their normal lives."

The statement stressed that all those who lay down their weapons will "instantly" be cleared.

The recent invitation comes as the Syrian army forces backed by Russia and Shiite fighters from Iran, Iraq and Lebanon's Hezbollah group are advancing against the foreign-backed rebels in Aleppo, Daraa and the seaside Latakia province.

The wide-scale military offensive in the north aimed to close borders between Turkey and northern Syrian areas, stopping the supplies the rebels received through the Turkish borders.

The military campaign in Daraa also aims to close the borders with Jordan.

The Syrian government has always accused Turkey and Jordan of facilitating the flow of arms and militants through their borders into Syria.

The invitation apparently is directed to the rebels, who are branded by the west as "moderate," as the Islamic State (IS) and the al-Qaida-linked Nusra Front are excluded from any reconciliation.

Such rebel groups are largely supported by Turkey and Saudi Arabia, which recently said they are ready to send in ground troops to fight the IS in Syria, a move read by local observers as a Saudi and Turkey desire to prop up the rebels that are suffering defeats by the hands of the Syrian army.

Those rebels are militants the Syrian military is urging to surrender, in an obvious message to Turkey and Saudi Arabia that the war on the militants will continue until they surrender.

The government often refers to the surrender of rebels and truces as "national reconciliations," as happened in some areas near Damascus, where the trapped rebels would finally agree to abandon the insurgency in exchange of clearing their criminal records and the entry of aid to their areas.

Throughout the crisis, warring parties in Syria have resorted to sieges to diminish one another's strength.

The tactic successfully forced rebels out of several areas and drove the government into negotiations in other areas, but countless civilians fell victim to the dire consequences of the sieges.

The long-running conflict has killed at least 250,000 people, and driven 11 million from their homes. Endit