ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq - Anti-government local factions have seized control of “more than 90 percent” of Syria’s southern province of Daraa amid a gradual withdrawal of the regime forces, reported a war monitor early Saturday.

The UK-based war monitor Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said that the local factions in Daraa made major advancements in the field in the early hours of Saturday, taking full control of many military sites, checkpoints, and barracks, “following violent clashes which forced the regime forces to retreat.”

Syrian opposition-affiliated media said on their Telegram channel that Daraa city had been “completely liberated” from the Syrian regime and its allied militias. The channels also published footage showing the moments the factions released the prisoners from the Daraa central prison.

The regime has now lost control of four major cities since the start of the recent campaign by anti-government groups on November 27. The rebel groups had held parts of Idlib before the campaign while regime forces maintained presence in some areas, but the city has now fallen completely under the armed groups' control as well.

Daraa province is located near Syria’s border with Jordan.

Hours before the factions took control of the city, Jordanian Interior Minister Mazin al-Farrayeh announced the closing of Nasib Border Crossing, also known as Jaber Border Crossing, between Syria and Jordan, citing the security situation in the neighboring country. The minister said that Jordanian citizens and trucks will be allowed to return to the country, while traffic into Syria will be prohibited.

Nicknamed the “cradle of the Syrian revolution,” Daraa was one of the main starting points of the Syrian uprising and subsequent civil war after protests erupted in the province in March 2011 in the wake of the arrest and torture of 15 young students for painting anti-government graffiti.

Updated at 10:46pm with army redeployment