Assassinations in Daraa | 18 regime soldiers and officers among 26 people killed in May

Since early May, the province of Daraa has experienced alarming escalation of assassinations which target “collaborators” and members of regime forces and security services as well as civilians.

 

According to SOHR statistics, 26 people, including a regime officer and 17 other soldiers, were killed in attacks throughout Daraa province in May 2021. The fatalities could be distributed as follows:

 

• May 1: SOHR activists have documented the death of three members of the military security services in an attack on their military vehicle near Sayda town in the eastern countryside of Daraa.

 

• May 2: SOHR activists documented the death of a member of the 4th Division affected by the injury he had in an armed attack, over a week earlier, nearby Tel Shehab in the western countryside of Daraa. It is worth noting that this member’s escort was killed immediately in the attack. A few hours later, SOHR activists reported a new assassination with machineguns in Daraa governorate, where unidentified  gunmen on a motorcycle shot dead a top officer of the 22nd Air-Defense Brigade in regime forces, near Al-Bashayer station on the road connecting  Izraa’ city and Sheikh Miskeen in the eastern countryside of Daraa.

 

• On the other hand, the number of members of the military security services who were killed due to an armed attack by unknown gunmen on their car in Sayda town in eastern Daraa has increased to three.

 

• May 3: Unidentified gunmen shot dead a former member of the opposition factions, who had struck reconciliation deal with regime forces, in front of his house in the city of Jasim in the northern countryside of Daraa. It is worth noting that the young man was a drug dealer.

 

• May 4: Syrian Observatory activists documented the death of two regime soldiers, as unknown gunmen opened fire on them in Um Walad town in the eastern countryside of Daraa.

 

• May 5: Unidentified gunmen shot dead the former head of a local council in front of his house in the town of Barqa in Daraa countryside.

 

• May 6: SOHR activists documented the death of the leader of a security group of the 4th Division, after being shot by unknown gunmen in Kharab al-Shahm village in the western countryside of Daraa. It is worth noting that assassinated man had been the commander of an opposition faction affiliated to the factions of “al-Jabha al-Janoubiyyah” (the Southern Front), before he struck a reconciliation deal with security services following the regime forces’ control of Daraa province. Also, SOHR activists documented the death of two members of the 4th Division after being shot by unknown gunmen on Um Walad road in the eastern countryside of Daraa. According to SOHR sources, the two members were from Homs On the same day, unidentified gunmen opened fire on a member of the Syrian regime’s Military Intelligence service, branch 215, west of the town of Taseel. The man died of injuries after he was taken to the hospital in the city of Nawa, west of Daraa.

 

• May 8: Syrian Observatory activists in the south of Syria region reported that a young man was killed by an armed group, after he refused to stop for them on the road between the villages of Ghasm and al-Mitaiya, in the eastern countryside of Daraa. 

 

• May 9: SOHR activists in the south of Syria reported that a member of the Fourth Division was shot dead by unidentified gunmen, in the town of Tel Shehab, near the Syrian-Jordanian border, west of Daraa.

 

• May 10: An official of Baath Party was killed in the town of al-Sahwa in the eastern countryside of Daraa by unknown gunmen in the early morning. Syrian Observatory activists also reported that a former fighter of the rebel factions, who had struck a reconciliation deal with regime and joined the “Fourth Division”, was shot dead by unidentified assailants in the town of Tel Shehab in the western countryside of Daraa.

 

• May 12: SOHR activists documented the death of a civilian after being shot by unknown gunmen on the road between Naf’a and Jamlah towns in the western countryside of Daraa. It is worth noting that the assassinated man was defected from the regime’s military police a few years earlier, and he worked as a taxi driver after he struck a reconciliation deal in 2018.

 

• May 14: SOHR activists documented the death of two regime soldiers after being shot by unknown gunmen in Nawa city in the western countryside of Daraa. While a civilian was shot by unidentified gunmen in the city of al-Hirak in the countryside of Daraa, which caused serious injuries that led to his death after he arrived at a hospital in the city.

 

 

• May 15: SOHR activists in the western countryside of Daraa reported that unknown gunmen opened machinegun fire on a vehicle of the 112th Brigade of regime forces in the town of Ain Zikr, killing three members and wounding at least two others. SOHR activists alos documented the death of a civilian and his wife after being shot by unknown gunmen on the road between Jamleh and Abdeen in western Daraa.

 

Since the beginning of the security chaos in Daraa in early June 2019, Syrian Observatory activists have documented more than 1,043 attacks and assassination attempts by gunfire and detonations of IEDs, motorcycle-bombs and car-bombs. These attacks and assassinations claimed the lives of 726 persons, categorised as follows:

 

• 201 civilians, including 13 women and 21 children

 

• 342 regime soldiers, loyalists and collaborators with regime security services.

 

• 131 fighters of factions that struck “reconciliation and settlements” deals with the regime and became in the ranks of regime’s security branches, including former commanders.

 

• 25 Syrian militiamen affiliated to the Lebanese Hezbollah and Iranian forces.

 

• 27 members of the so-called 5th Corps which was established by Russia.