Eastern Ghouta | Iranian officers check military barracks, after buying hundreds of the area’s real estate at their orders
Reliable sources in eastern Ghouta have informed the Syrian Observatory that officers of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) carried out several inspection tours for three days, at the beginning of 2021, in “Marj Al-Sultan” helipad, “Air-Defence” battalion in Al-Aftaris area, and battalion of the military airport constructions in Beit Nayim area in eastern Ghouta. The reasons behind these inspection tours have not been reported yet.
It is worth noting that these military sites had been captured by opposition factions in 2012, and then they were destroyed and sabotaged, before military groups of regime forces were stationed in them when regime forces recaptured eastern Ghouta in March 2018 following an agreement stipulating for the displacement of people and factions who refused reconciliations to north Syria region.
On November 20, reliable SOHR sources in eastern Ghouta reported increasing purchases of real estates in the towns and cities of Ghouta by a group of people working for dealers from Deir Ezzor. These people buy real estates, mostly houses and some shops, at orders by the dealers, but the fact that all these real estates are kept closed after being sold is the most interesting about that development.
According to SOHR sources, these dealers are from Al-Mayadeen countryside in eastern Deir Ezzor and affiliated to the Iranian-backed local militias of “Al-Abbas Brigade”. The most prominent dealer is a man from Al-Bakarah tribe called Abu Yasser Al-Bakary, who has bought many real estates in Deir Ezzor at direct orders by Adnan Al-Abbas, the leader of “Al-Abbas Brigade”.
Such purchases are concentrated in eastern Ghouta, particularly in Kafr Batna, Hazza, Saqba, Ain Tarma, Al-Mulayha and Zamalka. These deals included real estates which have been for sale and other real estates whose owners have been displaced to northern Syria or traveled overseas, via brokers of both sides.
It is worth noting that the number of real estates purchased by “Al-Abbas Brigade” in the past few months exceeded 300, while the value of each real estate sold during this period ranged between 25 million SYL and 125 million SYL, according to the size and location.
SOHR sources confirmed that these processes are on the march, as representatives of these dealers, carrying individual guns, pay periodical visits to real estate offices in eastern Ghouta where they ask about real estates available for sale, and ask these offices’ owners to inform them as soon as there are real estates are offered.
Such suspicious and uncertain developments in the area have triggered the residents’ fear and worry over the purposes and reasons behind purchasing this large number of real estates in their cities and towns.