After Joining Over 5200 To the Regime Forces and Allies, Tens of Young People of The Eastern Ghouta Face ISIS South Damascus, The Capital
Damascus Province, the Syrian Observatory for human rights: the Syrian Observatory monitored the continuation of violent clashes in the southern sector of the capital Damascus, between the regime forces supported by the gunmen loyal to them of Syrian and non-Syrian nationalities against members of the “Islamic State” organization; since the clashes erupted on the 19th of April 2018, as a result of the continuous attack by the regime forces to control the rest of areas that are under the control of the “Islamic State” organization in the southern section of the capital Damascus, following the remaining area became confined and isolated from the rest of Damascus and Rif Dimashq, which are now under the control of the regime and their allies completely, amid aerial raids on the area in conjunction with shelling by the regime forces using artillery and rocket shells and missiles believed to be ground-to-ground, which caused material damage as well as casualties in the ranks of both parties.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights learned from several reliable sources that groups of young people of the Eastern Ghouta, of who have joined the regime forces during the past days and weeks; some of them were transferred to the battlefronts against the “Islamic State” organization in the southern section of the capital Damascus, where the reliable sources of the Syrian Observatory confirmed that about 120 members from the Eastern Ghouta who joined the regime forces, have joined forces of the 4th Division led by the brother of the president of the regime Bashar al-Assad, and the group has participated in the fight against the “Islamic State” organization in Yarmouk Camp, al-Tadamon and al-Hajar al-Aswad, and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights made sure that at least 10 of them have been injured with varying severity.
The continuous clashes and shelling in the southern section of the capital Damascus have caused more casualties, where it rose to 195 at least, the number of members of the regime forces and militiamen loyal to them of Syrian and non-Syrian nationalities, who have been killed since Thursday the 19th of April 2018, including 24 officers and 9 of them were executed, while it has increased to 151, the number of members of the organization who were killed in the shelling, clashes and targeting that left tens of wounded in the ranks of the both parties, and the death toll is expected to rise because of the continued combat operations and the presence of injured cases in critical situation.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights has obtained information from several reliable sources that thousands of men and young men of the Eastern Ghouta have joined the ranks the regime forces and militiamen loyal to them, after the process of displacement of civilians and fighters and their families, which was started with the exit of the first batch from the Eastern Ghouta, on the 22nd of March 2018, until mid-April 2018, under which about 296700 persons have gotten out of the Eastern Ghouta towards the Syrian north and regime forces’ controlled areas, and some of them stayed in the areas that have been controlled by the regime forces within the Eastern Ghouta, in the pocket controlled by Rahman Corps and in Douma city, and in the details documented by the Syrian Observatory: the number of people who stayed in the former controlled areas of Rahman Corps and former control areas of Jaysh al-Islam; is about 120 thousand people, while from the areas of Rahman Corps, Hayyaat Tahrir Al-Sham and Ahrar al-Sham movement; about 86 thousand have gotten out to shelter centers within regime forces’ controlled areas in the vicinity of the Eastern Ghouta and in Rif Dimashq, while about 46400 persons have gotten out towards the Syrian north, and 1300 of the previous fighters of the Islamic Etihad of Rahman Corps, their families, civilians and other activists have gotten out of Douma city, also about 22 thousand civilians have gotten out of Douma earlier towards regime forces’ controlled areas in shelter centers in the vicinity of the Eastern Ghouta and in Rif Dimashq, while about 21 thousand persons have gotten out of Douma city on buses to the north of Syria.
Syrian Observatory for Human Rights learned from reliable sources that the number of persons who joined the ranks of the regime forces and militiamen loyal to them has reached more than 4000 persons, and they are from the towns and cities of Douma, Hamouriyah, Arbin, Jesrin, KafrBatna, Hazza, Mesraba and Saqba, and other areas in the Eastern Ghouta including former fighters who had joined military action when it began in the Eastern Ghouta, and then they left it and stayed home until the factions got out of it and displacing those who refused the agreement of the Eastern Ghouta factions with the regime and the Russians, the process of joining men and young men to the ranks of the regime forces and militiamen loyal to them continues.
Reliable sources confirmed to the Syrian Observatory in the first half of April 2018 that hundreds of Al-Rahman Corps’ fighters have surrendered to the regime forces, in the wake of the departure of the convoys of Al-Rahman Corps’ fighters with their families and citizens who reject the agreement, and in the details obtained by the Syrian Observatory; the total number of the fighters and commanders who have surrendered to the regime forces, approximated 1200 fighters and leaders, as groups of Al-Rahman Corps’ members have surrendered sequentially, where the sources confirmed to the SOHR that about 800 fighters mostly are of the security groups operating within Al-Rahman Corps, including groups and battalions commanders, surrendered to the regime forces in conjunction with the departure of the convoys from the Eastern Ghouta, according to the agreement of Zamalka – Jobar – Arbin, where these groups were the security pillar of Al-Rahman Corps, which the corps depended on, in the operations of the internal fighting in the Eastern Ghouta, with Jaysh Al-Islam and Hayyaat Tahrir al-Sham.
Also about 320 fighters of those stationed on the contact lines and fronts with the regime forces and their allies of Syrian and non-Syrian nationalities, surrendered after the departure of all convoys from the former controlled areas of Al-Rahman Corps in the Eastern Ghouta of Damascus, in Jisrayn, Hamouriyah, Arbin, Kafr Batna, Saqba and Jobar, and the Syrian Observatory learned that one of the field commanders who confronted a large attack by the regime forces in 2017 when they carried out a violent attack on Ein Tarma area, has surrendered to the regime forces with more than 40 of his members, and the reliable sources confirmed to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights that most of the members who have surrendered to the regime, turned into “popular committees” operating within the ranks of the regime forces, and the members who have surrendered, included groups commanders, prison chiefs, and battalions and brigades commanders in Al-Rahman Corps, where they joined the forces of the 4th Division and the Republican Guard and other bodies affiliated to the regime, while the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights published on the 19th of March 2018, that groups of Al-Rahman Corps, turned into popular committees operating with the regime forces, in the area used to be controlled by Al-Rahman Corps and which the regime forces advanced into, in the south-western enclave of the Eastern Ghouta of Damascus, and it monitored clashes against fighters in the corps in the contact areas between these committees and the members of the latter.