On November 8, the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) 4th Division backed by security forces carried out a security operation in the southern outskirt of the Daraa city.
The operation took place in the areas of al-Shayah and al-Nakhlah. The army and security forces searched for several wanted personnel.
During the operation, government forces clashed with a number of former rebels. At least two people were injured in the clashes, which saw the use of heavy weapons.
The Horan Free League said local fighters working for the Military Intelligence Directorate took part in the operation. Daraa’s Central Committee, a coalition of former rebel factions, was also aware of the operation.
Click to see full-size map. Source: (@Suriyakmaps) on Twitter, Via Google Maps – TerraMetrics
The operation provoked a group of local fighters in western Daraa, who captured an SAA post in the town of Jailin. The fighters also abducted two officers and ten soldiers. Moreover, local fighters shelled a checkpoint of the Air Force Intelligence Directorate in the town of Kerak. The SAA quickly responded with artillery strikes.
The abduction of the Syrian service members may lead to a serious escalation in western Daraa. Usually, Russian mediators resolve such issues within a few days.
The situation in Daraa is slowly spinning out of control. Government forces are not the only side facing challenges in the governorate. Local fighters are deeply divided and they are being targeted on a regular basis.
“The situation in Daraa is slowly spinning out of control.”
Is this the understatement of the year.
Iran is destroying Syria and most of you have no idea what the hell is going on, you must expect the Russians to come out and plainly say,
The Iranians are circumventing us at every turn, they’re spending more money and targeting opposition groups and recruiting them to their side faster than we can, and they’re also appealing to the religious extremists too, which also puts our Russian side at a disadvantage, we only try to recruit the non sectarian opposition and they aren’t as fanatically driven as the religious zealots are, so we’re losing the battle.
But the Russians can’t come out and say that, it would be political suicide, so the Russian’s are hoping some of us will be smart enough to work it out for ourselves, and then try to filter it through to the rest of the people who support them, that way we can all start criticizing Iran for their behaviour, Russia can’t do it or they’d be called hypocritical.
I’ve linked several statements from the commander of the Russian backed 5th army corps 8th Battalion recently, he said the Iranian’s and Hezbollah were behind a lot of the troubles happening in southern Syria now, he accused them of recruiting members of the Druze Men of Dignity to the Iranian side, and he also accused them of recruiting criminal gangs and smugglers to their side, and even said he was in Jordan discussing security concerns about Iran/Hezbollah with Jordanian Intelligence. So I don’t know just how much more information people will need to start seeing things for the way they really are. The commander started making these claims at least 2 months ago, so if he was lying I’m sure he’d no longer be the commander of the 5th army corps 8th Battalion, but he’s still there and he’s still saying the same thing, but no one who reads SF [except for me] seems to be listening to him. If you’re really pro Russian you should start reading all news sources from ALL parties, don’t just rely on pro Russian sources, because sometimes the Russians can’t tell you the truth, which means if you don’t read news from ALL sources you’ll never know what the truth is, and you can never be truly pro Russian if you don’t want to know what the truth really is.