Regime-controlled areas in July 2024 | 140 fatalities in acts of violence…nearly ten infightings, assassinations and attacks…over 100 kidnaps and arbitrary arrests

Regime-controlled areas experienced scores of dramatic developments in July 2024, including an alarming escalation of violence, worsening living conditions, tightening security grip and ongoing arbitrary arrests.

 

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) has monitored and tracked all key developments in regime-controlled areas in the past month, which can be summarised in the following main points:

 

 

Acts of violence leave many casualties

 

In July 2024, regime-controlled areas experienced an alarming escalation of acts of violence that left many casualties, where SOHR documented the death of 140 people across areas controlled by the Syrian regime and affiliated militias; the deaths are as follows:

 

 

Civilian fatalities

 

72 civilians, including nine children and 11 women. Here are further details of the circumstances of these deaths:

 

• 33 civilians, including four children and eight women, were murdered.

 

• Ten civilians, including three children and two women, were killed in indiscriminate gunfire.

 

• Eight civilians, including a woman, were killed in incidents of security disorder in Daraa.

 

• Seven civilians were killed by regime forces

 

• Five civilians were killed by ISIS.

 

• Three civilians, including two children, were killed by explosions of old ordnance.

 

• Four civilians were killed in an Israeli attacks.

 

• Two civilians died under torture in regime prisons.

 

 

Non-civilian fatalities

 

-53 members of regime forces and their proxy militias:

 

• 22 killed by ISIS.

 

• 15 killed in incidents of security disorder in Daraa province.

 

• 11 killed by rebels and jihadists.

 

• Two killed in an Israeli attacks.

 

• Three assassinated by unknown gunmen.

 

-Seven Iranian-backed militiamen:

 

• One non-Syrian militiaman was killed in Israeli strikes.

 

• One Syrian militiaman was killed in Israeli strikes.

 

• Two Syrian militiaman working for Hezbollah were assassinated.

 

• One Syrian militiaman was killed by regime forces.

 

• Two Syrian militiamen were killed by ISIS.

 

-Eight gunmen:

 

• Four killed in incidents of security disorder in Daraa province.

 

• Two killed by regime forces.

 

• Two killed in clashes with other gunmen.

 

 

Kidnappings and arbitrary arrests

 

As regime security and intelligence services continue their repression, SOHR activists documented, in July, the arrest of at least 88 civilians, including a woman and three children, as well as the kidnapping of 21 other civilians, including two children.

 

A regional breakdown of arbitrary arrests is as follows:

 

• Daraa: 25 people, including a woman and three children.

 

• Rif Dimashq: 20 people.

 

• Homs: 13 people.

 

• Deir Ezzor: 16 people.

 

• Hama: Four persons.

 

• Aleppo: Eight people.

 

• Al-Suwaidaa: Two persons.

 

A regional breakdown of kidnaps is as follows:

 

• Daraa: Seven people, including a child.

 

• Homs: 11 people, including a child.

 

• Al-Suwaidaa: Three persons.

 

 

Crime rate is on the rise

 

Regime-held areas have recently experienced an alarming escalation of crime rate, in light of the regime security services’ failure to put an end to the state of disorder and rampant security chaos in all Syrian provinces.

 

The Syrian Observatory documented 28 murder crimes in regime-controlled areas in July 2024, where domestic violence and armed robbery were behind some of these murders, while motivations behind the others remained unknown. These murder crimes left 33 fatalities: four children, eight women and 21 men. The murder crimes and fatalities they left are distributed regionally as follows:

 

• Daraa: 11 murder crimes left 12 men, two children and two women dead.

 

• Al-Suwaidaa: Three murder crimes left a man and two women dead.

 

• Rif Dimashq: Six murder crimes left three men, a little girl and two women dead.

 

• Homs: Four murder crimes left three men and a woman dead.

 

• Hama: One murder crime left a woman dead.

 

• Aleppo: One murder crime left a man dead.

 

• Tartus: One murder crime left a child dead.

 

• Latakia: One murder crime left a man dead.

 

 

Daraa “the cradle of the Syrian Revolution:” Security chaos noticeably escalates

 

Incidents of security disorder, mainly armed attacks, in Daraa province continued in July 2024, where SOHR documented 37 attacks in different areas throughout Daraa province. These attacks left 29 people dead; they are as follows:

 

• Eight civilians, including a woman.

 

• 11 regime soldiers, members and collaborators with regime security services.

 

• Four individuals accused of “involving in drug business.”

 

• Four members of local factions.

 

• Two collaborators with the Lebanese Hezbollah.

 

 

Nine infightings and assassinations and attacks target combatants

 

In July, SOHR documented four infightings and five assassinations and attacks which targeted members of regime forces and security services in Al-Suwaidaa, Deir Ezzor, Hama and Rif Dimashq provinces. Those infightings and attacks left 12 persons dead and others injured.

 

 

Ongoing uprising in Al-Swuaidaa

 

As residents from Jabal Al-Arab area continue their peaceful protests in Al-Suwaidaa, calling for toppling Bashar Al-Assad, applying political transition of power, enhancing the concept of the decentralization and implementing the International Resolution No. 2254, peaceful demonstrations staged in Al-Suwaidaa city centre on a daily basis in July.

 

During those protests, demonstrators chanted anti-regime slogans and lifted placards with slogans written on them, some of which read “people do not inherit dignity but create it themselves”, “we will not accept a public council ruled by Al-Assad,” “to all countries of the world, there is no solution for Syrians with the Iranian presence in our lands,” “from north to south, the goal and destiny are one,” “down with the regime and its intelligence branches,” “Syria will not be ruled by those who sold its land but by those who left their mark on it,” “we will not accept any occupiers within our country,” “yes to the independence of unions and the judiciary from security guardianship,” “tyrants are more dangerous than invaders,” “justice is the source of judgment,” “we express out solidarity with our people in north Syria in order to restore the national decision” and “from Al-Karama square in the south, we greet all squares of dignity in north Syria.”

 

 

Renewed “settlements and reconciliations”

 

On July 12, regime forces and security services opened a reconciliation centre in a tent near the entrance of the 121^st Brigade in Kanaker town in Rif Dimashq, near the occupied Syrian Golan, where civilians can settle their security situation with the Syrian regime. According to SOHR sources, the centre started to receive applications from individuals who wanted to strike reconciliation deals, after providing the required ID documents.

 

The new reconciliation has covered individuals with settled-status whose current security situation required them to re-strike reconciliation deals, as well as individuals who evaded mandatory and reserve conscription and those residents with security issues. The military deserters would join the 90^th Brigade or the 2^nd Corps, which are affiliated with regime forces, after striking reconciliation deals.

 

It is worth noting that Kanaker town is under symbolic control by Russian and regime forces since the beginning of forcible displacement in 2016. However, the town has experienced frequent anti-regime demonstrations and a state of public anger over the continuing indifference of the Syrian regime to demands of the town’s residents.

 

While on July 11, residents staged a demonstration in Talbiseh city, expressing their rejection of reconciliation with regime forces. This coincided with preparations for starting reconciliation deals with the regime in Talbiseh city and some surrounding villages, along with establishing security posts for protecting Homs-Hama highway. The residents also called for staging a mass demonstration on the following day after Friday’s prayer to call for the release of detainees.

 

On the other hand, the head of the general intelligence department in Damascus, major general “Hossam Loqa,” held an expanded meeting with residents and dignitaries of Talbiseh city in the northern countryside of Homs, in presence of the head of the military intelligence branches brigadier general “Mohamed Suleiman Qana,” the head of the air-force intelligence branch brigadier general “Qadwan Saqr,” the head of Homs police, the head of the state security branch brigadier general “Madin Naddah,” the head of the 3^rd Corps and the head of the security and military committee in Homs brigadier general “Ahmed Maalla.”

 

The meeting focused on starting establishing a “safe zone” in the northern countryside of Homs as a part of preparations for deporting Syrian refugees from Lebanon to this area, at orders and under pressure by Ankara, Moscow and the United Nations.

 

The meeting also discussed the preparations for establishing a new reconciliation centre where suspects from Talbiseh city could settle their security situations with the Syrian regime, before it covered suspects in all towns and villages in the northern countryside of Homs.

 

According to statements by “Hossam Loqa,” the centre would receive reconciliation requests as of Sunday in a governmental building in Talbiseh city. “Loqa” also stated that the new reconciliation would cover individuals liable to mandatory and reserve conscription, who would be given a time limit of six months to join conscription branches, while regime army defectors could settle their security situations on condition that they must return to their military barracks in no more one month.

 

“Loqa” told the city’s residents that people who refused to live in areas under the control of the Syrian regime were able to strike reconciliation deals and then they would given a time limit of six months to obtain passports and leave Syria, and that they would not be arrested even if they were wanted by intelligence branches for security issues.

 

Local sources in Talbiseh city confirmed that major general “Hossam Loqa” threatened that every one manipulating the settlement committee and refusing to hand over their weapons would be “legal targets” for security services, especially since the committee had lists of the identities and detailed data of gunmen, stressing that the security services would not tolerate with any opponents in the incoming period.

 

According to the local sources, the heads of security services threatened, during the meeting, to prosecute every person involved in any offences committed after the reconciliation, describing them as “the last chance.”

 

This proves that the region is about to experience the beginning of establishment of that “safe zone” in coordination with Russian authorities, the guide for regime security services, which mediate to secure an appropriate environment for the return of refugees from neighbouring countries to Homs countryside as an initial step.

 

It is worth noting that several residents from Talbiseh city called for staging a demonstration on Friday to call for the release for detainees in regime prisons, whose cause was discussed during the meeting, but the committee intentionally ignored this cause.

 

Such calls for staging demonstrations in Talbiseh city were the first of their kind since the latest reconciliations in mid 2018, after the region came under regime forces’ control under Russian guarantee.

 

 

Ongoing Israeli attacks

 

As Israel continues infringing upon Syria’s sovereignty, SOHR documented seven attacks in July: four airstrikes and two rocket attacks by ground forces. Those attacks destroyed nearly 15 targets, including buildings, weapons and ammunitions warehouses, headquarters, centres and vehicles, killed four combatants and injured six others. The fatalities are distributed as follows:

 

• Two regime soldiers.

 

• A member of the Lebanese Hezbollah.

 

• A man working for the Lebanese Hezbollah.

 

In addition, the Israeli attacks in July resulted in the death of Al-Qaterji and his cousin.

 

The Israeli attacks in Syrian territory in July are distributed regionally as follows:

 

• Damascus and Rif Dimashq: Three attacks.

 

• Homs: Two attacks.

 

• Al-Quneitra: One attack.

 

• Tartus: One attack.

 

 

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) has been all along warning against the repercussions of the crippling chronic crises and security chaos in regime-controlled areas and elsewhere in Syria, with only the Syrian regime to blame for the disastrous situation Syria is in right now. We, at the Syrian Observatory, call upon all international actors not to abandon their responsibility and obligations towards the people of Syria and urge them to find a lasting solution to the tragedy of millions of Syrians and bring Al-Assad, his affiliates and all those responsible for violations and those who aided and abetted the killing of Syrian people to justice.