The Syrian Observatory For Human Rights

The Russian – American – Jordanian truce holds on for a third day, violations decline

The southern Syrian truce holds on for the third day since it went into effect on the 9th of July 2017 in the provinces of Al-Suwaidaa, Daraa and Al-Quneitra amid renewed violations there. The SOHR documented on the third day of the truce a targeting by the regime forces with heavy machine-guns of places in Al-Hamidiya area in the central sector of Al-Quneitra. The regime forces shelled before midnight areas in Daraa Al-Balad in Daraa city. The shelling coincided with targeting of the area with heavy machine guns by the regime forces. No casualties were reported. Clashes continue, with a varied pace of violence, between the regime forces and their allied militiamen on one hand and Jaysh Usud Al-Sharqiyyah and Ahmad Al-Abdu Forces on the other in areas in the northeastern countryside of Al-Suwaidaa.

Reliable sources confirmed to the SOHR that one of the clauses of the agreement provides for the deployment of Russian military police forces to the cease-fire zones in the three provinces included in the agreement to monitor the ceasefire and the truce implementation. Meanwhile, the factions operating in Al-Suwaidaa desert, which intersects with the southeastern part of Rif Dimashq, announced that they have not been informed by any regional or international entity about the ceasefire in southern Syria. The SOHR obtained information from reliable sources to the effect that the agreement provides for the withdrawal of the regime forces and their allied militiamen and the rebel and Islamic factions from contact lines in all areas, the deployment of the regime’s internal security forces in these lines whereas the rebel and Islamic factions participating in the agreement will be assigned the task of protecting all public and private establishments. In addition, it also stipulates the departure of all those unwilling to participate in the agreement, the full withdrawal of the regime’s allied militiamen – of non-Syrian nationalities, preparation of the infrastructure necessary for the return of refugees from Jordan successively, holding municipal elections and granting municipalities broad powers, and finally the delivery of humanitarian aid to the areas that abide by the ceasefire. The SOHR published on the 17th of June 2017 that a Russian-American-Jordanian truce was put into effect in Daraa Province and was extended till the 20th of June but came to an end as a result of the renewed aerial and artillery shelling by the regime forces and their allied militiamen, helicopters and warplanes.