DARAA.. Settlements, assassinations and emigration, who benefits and is responsible for what happens?

Over the past five years, Daraa governorate has suffered  from  a state of tension and security chaos, especially after the settlement process was conducted for the opposition factions of the people of the province in 2018 and the withdrawal of weapons from them after a siege that lasted for several days before the announcement of the settlement or “Al-Masalah”, which was established with Russian mediation at the time in order to regain control of the province and ensure an agreement on the exit of opposition fighters from the area, while others remain and hand over their weapons in exchange for amnesty and joining the army.

The PA fails to make Daraa stable despite the settlement.

“Deanship of Al-Jawabra” from the village of Taseel in Daraa Governorate says: The settlement operations were launched from Daraa Al-Balad towards the west and then the north and to the east, to announce the authority a month after its launch the completion of these operations in the entire province of Daraa after combing the area of the movement and its surroundings in the northeastern countryside of Daraa, in parallel with the settlement of the situation of dozens of wanted people from the city of Izraa and the town of Sheikh Miskin, and the new agreement included the delivery of individual weapons, the settlement of the status of those wanted by security and the return of defected recruits to their military units within Six months and the displacement of those who refuse and accompany the Russian military police to enter the PA army to these towns and that some towns could not hand over the entire individual weapon required and estimated by the authority in Damascus, so he imposed sums of money on them as an allowance ranging from 100 million to 200 million Syrian pounds.

Al-Jawabra adds: Despite the settlement of the opposition factions and those who failed to serve compulsory in 2018, the governorate did not enjoy security stability and remained under the weight of local leaders and foreign militias amid a security vacuum left by the authority in Damascus to become a shield for kidnapping gangs and drug smugglers, while the people face the burden of the militia consequences that took control after the army’s failure to calm the area, so the Russian police entered to support it at the end of 2018 in order to besiege the province and restrict its people, and the security situation quickly turned into A state of chaos, military confrontations and shelling of civilians, then militias entered the area to tighten the noose more on the people of the governorate, as well as to find a safe route for drug trafficking across the southern border with Jordan.

While the PA was preoccupied with the northern fronts, he ignited internal strife in the province to remain under his control, setting up checkpoints belonging to the Fourth Division in Daraa al-Balad in conjunction with the deployment of his security forces in the city.

Assassinations have not abated since 2018 until now.

Political activist “Mohammed Al-Hourani” says: The fear of the people of Daraa province has increased from the intentions of the authority and its security services about what they will do to civilians in retaliation for them after many cities were outside its control, so the pace of assassinations began to accelerate throughout the province by the army forces to liquidate effective leaders, stressing that the authority’s regional allies recruit elements whose task is to liquidate those who reject his presence in the south, in addition to using cells affiliated with the “ISIS” organization to carry out assassinations against opponents, negotiators and others, and for the series of assassinations, this is clear evidence of The inability of the authority and its loss of control over the province despite its repeated attempts to enter it militarily and impose its control by force on it, which forced it to follow a series of assassinations against opponents and prominent names among them, Al-Hourani added that some groups affiliated with the armed opposition also responded and targeted many figures affiliated with the authority from the people of Daraa, most notably targeting the leader Ahmed Al-Mashtouli, who worked for the “Quds Force” in recent months before his assassination, and recently attempted to target the governor of Daraa, Louay Kharita, After detonating an explosive device in his convoy on the Damascus-Daraa highway last month, he miraculously escaped it, and assassinations are being carried out that no one adopts or conflicting rumors and accusations are exchanged about the party responsible for the assassinations, such as targeting the leader of the Military Security Branch in the city of Daraa, the country nicknamed “Al-Kassam”, which has conflicting information about his assassination, there are those who accused the Military Security Branch itself of liquidating him after ambushing him on the Daraa highway and another section accused the opposition of killing him, but both parties He denied responsibility for the incident.

Al-Hourani pointed out that the assassinations also affected drug dealers, gangs and mafias spread in the region due to the environment of southern Syria, where it is easy to obtain individual weapons that are widely spread without control and easy impunity, in addition to the difficult living situation and the blockage of the horizon that pushes young people into the arms of “assassination cells.”

The repercussions of assassinations on the future of the province

Observers believe that the declared goal of the series of assassinations carried out by the authority in the province, is the liquidation of his opponents, but with the passage of time began to draw features of other goals for the ongoing assassinations, most notably the disruption of society and change its demographic composition, where Suhail Al-Masalma, a lawyer from the sons of Daraa, says that in conjunction with the high frequency of assassinations, the authority worked to open the doors of travel and immigration for the people of Daraa and provided facilities that he did not provide to any other governorate, such as granting deserters from compulsory service passports and this This contradicts the Syrian law, which prohibits granting military personnel passports, and also provided facilities to those wanted in political cases and fighters in the ranks of the armed opposition, and considered that the one who encourages the authority in making these decisions is Iran because it has been working for years to buy property, real estate and land in Daraa in the names of loyalists from the people of the province, and this also applies to the province of Suwayda and Quneitra, which indicates that the target is the entire south of Syria.

Daraa province has witnessed many waves of mass migration after the escalation of assassinations in the province, most of which were concentrated in the city of Daraa, which has been subjected to many military campaigns in recent years, and it is expected that the waves of migration will continue in the coming days if the security escalation continues in the province.

Walid Al-Sukkari – Daraa