On Thursday, a second batch of opposition fighters left the city of Daraa in southern Syria, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, as part of a Russian-sponsored truce that put an end to an unprecedented escalation in the region for years.
During the past weeks, the city of Daraa witnessed a military escalation between the regime forces and local armed groups, after three years of calm, established by an exceptional settlement sponsored by Russia. The humanitarian situation has recently worsened with the siege imposed by the regime forces on Daraa Al-Balad, that is, the southern neighborhoods of the city, where opposition fighters reside. Those who reject a settlement reached under Russian auspices” in order to stop the escalation in Daraa al-Balad, to the areas of northern Syria.
For its part, the news agency announced “SANA” left “45 terrorists with some members of their families” from Daraa al-Balad in preparation for “ending the control of terrorism on the neighborhood and the return of all state institutions and services to it,” as she put it. About 10 fighters.
This comes as a unit of the Russian military police entered Daraa al-Balad on Tuesday to impose a plan that would allow Assad’s army to take control of it, while providing safe passage for the departure of former opposition fighters.
The Russian move stopped the attempt to storm Daraa Al-Balad by military units loyal to Iran, led by the Fourth Division of the Elite Forces, which controls the Li area.
The military escalation between the regime forces and opposition fighters since the end of July has pushed more than 38,000 people to the displacement during Almost a month, according to the United Nations announced on Tuesday.
The humanitarian situation worsened with the continuation of intermittent skirmishes and exchange of shelling, in addition to the regime forces gradually tightening the noose around Daraa al-Balad.
(The settlement agreement stipulates, according to the observatory, the expulsion of about a hundred wanted gunmen from the regime forces from Daraa al-Balad, provided that the rest of the fighters surrender their weapons, in preparation for lifting the siege on the area, where 40,000 people reside, who have suffered during the past two weeks, specifically from water and electricity cuts and lack of food and medical services.
In an intervention during a session of the UN Security Council on Tuesday, the UN Special Envoy for Syria Geir Pedersen called for humanitarian aid to be granted “immediate, safe and unhindered access to all affected areas, including Daraa al-Balad.”
And Daraa Governorate is the only area that has not been released Including all the fighters of the opposition factions after the regime forces regained control of them in July 2018, as a settlement agreement sponsored by Moscow put an end to military operations and kept the presence of opposition fighters who kept light weapons, while the regime forces did not spread throughout the governorate.
The confrontations that erupted at the end of July in separate areas of the governorate, including the city of Daraa, are the “most violent” in three years, according to the observatory.
