Morning clam prevails the Syrian south after violations in Daraa and Al-Quneitra before and after midnight

Calm has prevails Daraa Province and the Southern Syria since dawn today, the 10th of July 2017, as part of the Southern Syria Agreement that calls for cessation of hostilities in Al-Quneitra, Al-Suwaidaa and Daraa which was brokered by US, Russia and Jordan. The SOHR documented after midnight the fall of 3 shells on Tarik Al-Sad neighborhood and Daraa Al-Balad in Daraa city and an exchange of fire was heard in areas in Daraa Al-Balad with no casualties. The SOHR also documented yesterday before midnight violations of the agreement carried out by the regime forces when they fired two shells on Saida town in the eastern countryside of Daraa. There was also an exchange of shelling between one of the rebel factions and the regime forces in Al-Naima town and its surroundings in the same countryside in addition to the firing of two shells on areas in Daraa Al-Balad. As for the central countryside of Al-Quneitra, an exchange of targeting using heavy machine-guns occurred between the regime forces and some of the factions in the areas of Khan Arnaba and Al-Samadaniyya and MasHara and on the road to Jebbata Al-Khashab. Information about the injury of one person in Saida town was reported.

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, 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.