On 8 June 1941, troops of the 5th Indian Infantry Brigade Group—under Brigadier Wilfrid Lewis Lloyd—had crossed the Syrian border from the British Mandate of Palestine to take Quneitra and Deraa with the objective of opening the way for Free French forces to advance along the roads from these towns to Damascus.
Compton Mackenzie later described it at the time as being "a large village standing at the junction of the road from Damascus to Beirut and Quneitra".