Assassinations, explosions increase in government-held areas in southern Syria
DARAA, Syria (North Press) – Security chaos has increased significantly in the past three months in Syria’s southern provinces of Daraa and Quneitra, local sources and war monitors said on Wednesday.
Two civilians were killed on Monday by unknown masked gunmen in Tafas town, west to Daraa, according to local sources.
In Baath town, in Daraa countryside, several civilians were injured on Tuesday in an EID bombing, the sources added.
Syrian state-run news agency (SANA) also reported that an IED bombing on Tuesday in Daraa city caused material damage to a series of nearby buildings.
In Tafas town, west to Daraa, unknown masked gunmen killed a civilian on Tuesday near his house while he was going out for shopping, according to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) war monitor.
Some civilians were also injured in Tafas town when unknown gunmen also threw a bomb in a neighborhood where people were hanging out afternoon, local sources said.
According to the Syrian observatory, there were 680 murder attempts in the government-held areas of Daraa province since June, among which 450 people were killed.
In April, two senior army officers and a political official have been killed in Daraa, Financial Times reported.
Both Russia and Iran have built up proxy forces in southern Syria in the past two years, in an indirect competition for influence that experts say adds to the insecurity.
Syria experts said the assassinations of Syrian government personnel do not yet constitute a renewed insurgency.
The high murder rate in Dera’a is driven by local factors too, including revenge killings under retributive tribal justice and rivalries between smugglers and criminal gangs operating in the province.
Isis has also claimed responsibility for some attacks.