Regime-held areas in March | Dire living condition…chronic crises…escalating security chaos…large conflicts in Al-Qardaha
Areas under the control of the Syrian regime throughout Syria are struggling with disastrous living conditions, as a starvation is looming. While the residents in regime-held areas are suffering from the astronomically inflated prices of basic essentials and the acute shortage of bread and fuel, amid regime government’s inability to find workable solutions for critical crises.
Daraa
In March 2021, the province of Daraa had the largest share of security incidents and assassinations, as SOHR activists documented the death of 48 people. The breakdown of fatalities were distributed as follows:
39 regime soldiers, members of regime security services, regime “collaborators” and other persons with settled-status.
Nine civilians, including two children and the mother of a regime “collaborator”, and it is not known if this woman was killed over retaliation or there was another motivation.
All fatalities were killed in assassinations with gunfire and IED attacks in different areas of Daraa province, mostly in the western countryside. Besides, the province experienced nearly ten assassination failed attempts which targeted regime soldiers, collaborators and people with settled-status.
On March 18, SOHR sources reported several demonstrations near Al-Omari mosque, and other areas in Daraa countryside on the tenth anniversary of the Syria war. The demonstrators demanded the toppling of the Syrian regime and confirmed their adherence to the constants of the revolution.
Al-Quneitra
In Al-Quneitra province, five members of regime forces were killed in March, and they were as follows:
- A member of the regime engineering teams, while he was trying to dismantle an IED in the southern countryside of Al-Quneitra.
- Three members of Sa’sa’ branch were killed by gunfire by local gunmen from Rasm Khuwaylid village during a failed attempt by members of Sa’sa’ branch to storm the village.
- The General Secretary of Al-Baath party was killed and his son was injured in an IED explosion in their car on the road between Jaba and Um Batna in Al-Quneitra countryside near the border with the Occupied Golan.
Regime security services released ten prisoners from Al-Quneitra countryside after two years of detention in Sednaya notorious prison in Rif Dimashq.
Al-Suwaidaa
The province of Al-Suwaidaa, however, experienced five murders in March 2021, which targeted civilians as follows:
- A man was shot dead my members of regime security services in Um Al-Ruman village in southern Al-Suwaidaa.
- Two unidentified men were found dead in Kherbeh town in the western countryside of Al-Suwaidaa.
- A Jordanian young man was found dead with gunshot wounds and left in a taxi near Al-Suwaidaa National Hospital. Meanwhile, uncertainty is surrounding the circumstances of the killing of the young man with whom communication was lost since he left his house in Al-Mazra’a town in the western countryside of Al-Suwaidaa two days earlier.
- SOHR sources reported that unknown gunmen have blocked the way of a farmer in Al-Kherbeh town in the western countryside of Al-Suwaidaa in order to hijack his motorcycle, but when the farmer resisted, the attackers shot him dead.
While three farmers were kidnapped by unknown individuals in the western countryside of Al-Suwaidaa.
Also, SOHR sources reported a demonstration by the people of Al-Quraya town in Al-Suwaidaa countryside on the anniversary of the death of Sultan Pasha al-Atrash, the Commander General of the grand Syrian Revolution in 1925 against the French. Tens of the people were seen participating in a demonstrator in Al-Quraya town, the heartland of Sultan Pasha al-Atrash, lifting placards with slogans written on them calling for the release of detainees held in regime prisons,
Damascus
Syria capital, Damascus, experienced high security alert by security services as a part of tightening security measures at regime checkpoints, along with deployment of some makeshift checkpoints in side and main streets, in addition to the closure of all side and main roads leading to the areas of western and eastern Ghouta.
This development followed the arrest of three people and killing of three others by regime security services in western Ghouta, as these men planed to cross into the capital and carry out military operations against regime checkpoints on the tenth anniversary of the “Syrian Revolution”. While in the south of Damascus, regime forces and Iranian-backed militias blocked the road connecting between Babilla and Sayeda Zeinabin southern Damascus with soil barriers.
On March 17, several explosions hit Damascus, as Israel airstrikes targeted two weapons warehouses of Iranian forces in regime military positions, a few kilometres away from Damascus international airport.
While on March 27, regime intelligence services stormed the site of the conference staged by the opposition “National Democratic Front”, which was cancelled after regime security services cordoned of the conference venue, preventing the opposition commanders and conferees from entry.
Aleppo
SOHR activists reported that four shepherds from Tal Daman district were found dead with gunshot wounds at heads in farmlands in Rajm Al-Sawwan area in Khanaser desert in the southern countryside of Aleppo, near Aleppo-Hama-Al-Raqqah triangle in areas under the control of the Iranians in the Syrian desert where ISIS cells were prevalent. While on March 21, rockets hit Al-Saliheen and Al-Ferdaws neighbourhoods in the eastern part of the regime-controlled city of Aleppo, which killed two people and injured nearly 15 others.
Deir Ezzor
SOHR sources said that the body of a young man was found handcuffed and beheaded near al-Barid area in the city of Al-Mayadeen, which is under the control of Iranian militias, in the eastern countryside of Deir Ezzor. The identity of the victim remained unknown. Also, a group of Liwaa Al-Quds attacked, with individual weapons, the headquarters of the state security branch in Deir Ezzor city, which resulted in the death of two members of “Liwaa Al-Quds”.
Homs
Regime checkpoints at Kafr Laha – Talaf junction and Maryamayn Junction in the northern countryside of Homs came under armed attack by unknown gunmen. While clashes erupted between members of military security service and former fighters of local factions on the western outskirts of Tel Al-Zahab near Qarmas village. The clashes resulted in the death of two members of the military security service, while nine members on both sides sustained various injuries.
Latakia
The city of Qardaha, the heartland of President Bashar al-Assad, experienced considerable conflicts among pro-regime families, including families of the ruling class. These conflicts followed dispute over businesses related to the import and trade of electronics, PCs, laptops and other devices, especially with the critical economic hardship in Syria.
It is worth noting that the neighbourhoods of Latakia also experienced a state of tension among regime-backed factions following disagreements over internal conflicts.
Moreover, reliable sources in Bhamra village, which is the heartland of Ghazi Kanaan the former head of Syria’s security apparatus in Lebanon, adjacent Al-Qardaha, as well as sources in Al-Bahlouliyyah in Latakia countryside, told SOHR that regime security services carried out raids, arresting several people for “writing anti regime graffiti on the walls of these villages.
In light of the Syrian regime’s denial and intransigence , atrocities and inhumane practices, and failure to manage the dilapidated economy in areas under its control, which have now greatly impoverished the people of Syria, we, at the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, will not never stop reminding the international community of the dire situation in Syria and urging it not to abandon its responsibility and obligations to finding a lasting solution to the tragedy of millions of Syrians.