Former leaders in Syria’s Daraa call for rearmament after recent assassinations
DARAA, Syria (North Press) – Former leaders in the city of Daraa, southern Syria, who made reconciliations with the Syrian government in 2018, began calling for rearmament after recent assassinations in the governorate.
“There are several former opposition leaders in Daraa who refused to get involved with the Fifth Corps, and started sensing danger after Russia broke its promises in securing protection for them and for their families after the reconciliation in 2018,” a special source in Daraa said.
Russia established the Fifth Corps in 2016, and invited Syrians, particularly those who had avoided military conscription, deserted from the military, or joined the opposition, to join the Corps via reconciliation centers.
“A meeting was held in the house of one of the notables in Daraa al-Balad region this morning, attended by figures that oppose Russian and Iranian presence in the area.”
The meeting resulted in agreeing on an initiative that will be announced in the coming days, and “concentrates on the rearmament of the remnants of the Free Syrian Army (FSA) in the southern area,” according to the source.
The source noted that this will take effect in the event that Russian forces are “unable to stop pro-Syrian government military security departments from committing systematic assassinations and arrests.”
The source hinted at “the popular explosion in Daraa and the return of the demonstrations that will become an umbrella for an armed move, taking the Syrian memory back to the beginning of the Syrian crisis in 2011.”
Recently, Adham Karrad and his friends were assassinated on the Daraa-Damascus highway while visiting one of the prominent security leaders of the Syrian government.
During the visit, they demanded the release of all political detainees of Daraa from government prisons in Damascus.
On October 13, armed young men cut the road connecting the western countryside of Daraa with the city center after pro-Syrian government security forces arrested young men from the region.