Syrian Millitary Enters Key Hills Around Nawa After Reconciliation Agreement

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On July 18, the local Free Syrian Army (FSA) groups in the town of Nawa in the northwestern Daraa countryside expelled Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) from the town and accepted a reconciliation agreement with the Damascus government, according to Syrian pro-government and opposition sources.

Earlier, warplanes of the Syrian Arab Air Force (SyAAF) and the Russian Aerospace Forces carried out a series of airstrikes on dozens of positions of HTS and its allies in Nawa after the failure of a previous agreement.

Under the new reconciliation agreement, units of the SAA entered the hills of Umm Hawran and al-Hish north and northeast of the town. These hills overlook Nawa, which insures that HTS will not be able to sneak in again.

The local FSA groups will hand over a part of its heavy weapons to the SAA in the upcoming hours. Another part of the weapons, which is stationed on the front lines with the ISIS-affiliated Jaysh Khalid ibn Walid Army, will not be handed over to the SAA until the whole area is secured.

The SAA will coordinate with the FSA inside Nawa to make sure that the Khalid ibn al-Walid Army would take no advantage of the reconciliation process to expand own influence. Previously, the ISIS-affiliated group took advantage of a similar agreement in the town of Tafas and captured a key villages southwest of it.

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