Ammon News - by Taylor Luck / Jordan Times

AMMAN/MAFRAQ — Hundreds of Syrians fled to Jordan on Wednesday as rising violence along the shared border reportedly stranded hundreds of refugees.

According to the Jordan Armed Forces, some 760 Syrians crossed into Jordan early Wednesday, raising the total number of new arrivals over the past 72 hours to over 1,600.

Wednesday’s influx came as fighting along the Jordanian-Syrian border stretched into its third week, closing off main access routes into the Kingdom and forcing hundreds of displaced Syrians fleeing their homeland to use more arduous desert routes to enter the country.

According to rebel officials, heavy clashes and shelling blocked off routes into southwest Syria for the tenth straight day on Wednesday, forcing opposition forces to restrict cross-border activity to “essential movement” of fighters and medical supplies and continue a suspension of mass refugee crossings.

“We can barely move our fighters in and out of southern Syria without being massacred,” said Abu Mohammad Al Naimi, commander of a Free Syrian Army battalion currently located outside the city of Daraa.

“For refugees, nearly all roads to Jordan are closed.”

The rise in hostilities has driven hundreds of displaced Syrians to travel along longer, eastern routes near the Iraqi border to enter Jordan, according to local residents and rebel officials, with the UN Refugee Agency reporting a record 480 crossings along the desert routes on Wednesday alone.

The crossing closures have led to hundreds being stranded across southern Syria, rebels claim, with some 3,000 displaced Syrians amassed along the border with Jordan as of late Wednesday.

Meanwhile, violence continued to rage across southern Syria on Wednesday, with Jordanian security sources and rebel officials reporting heavy clashes in the border villages of Al Tuffs, Al Nawa, Al Taseel, Al Mazeereeb and the southern city of Daraa.

The clashes are part of an ongoing sweeping military offensive by Damascus that has seen regime and Hizbollah forces retake over 30 towns and villages across the country.

As of late Wednesday, some 6,000 Hizbollah fighters remained stationed on the outskirts of Daraa, a few kilometres away from the Jordanian-Syrian border, local residents and rebel officials said.

Jordan has opened its borders to over 560,000 Syrians since the onset of the conflict, a number UN officials expect will surpass 1.3 million before the end of the year.