Government forces send military reinforcements to Syria’s Daraa
QAMISHLI, Syria (North Press) – Syrian government forces continued to send military reinforcements to Daraa city, south Syria, despite the reported news of an agreement between the Daraa Tribal Council and members of the Central Committee to break the siege and prevent any military confrontation in the area.
On Friday, government military groups arrived at the missile battalion adjacent to the Jordanian border, south of Daraa.
Moreover, other groups arrived and stationed at several military points in al-Manshiya neighborhood in Daraa al-Balad, according to the Ahrar Houran Gathering website.
Six tanks were stationed in the Sajna neighborhood in Daraa, at a time when the government forces reinforced their positions at the grain silos in the Gharz area, east of Daraa, and brought new groups.
The new military groups are affiliated with the Fourth Division, led by Maher al-Assad, the Ninth Division, and the 15th Division in the government forces and others affiliated with the Military Security in Daraa.
The vicinity of Daraa al-Balad also witnessed government military reinforcements consisting of cars equipped with machine guns and a number of members heading to al-Manshiya neighborhood in the center of Daraa. The government forces also set up heavy artillery platforms in the al-Majbal area near the village of Khirbet Ghazaleh, east of Daraa.
In addition, the “Freedom for Daraa” campaign stressed, on its Twitter account, on Friday that “regime forces have been bringing military reinforcements to the city of Daraa. They stationed in the Dahiya area, the Sajna and Manshiya neighborhoods in Daraa al-Balad, and the missile battalion.”
On Friday, information reported that the Daraa Tribal Council and members of the Daraa Central Committee had reached an agreement with government forces to lift the siege on the neighborhoods of Daraa al-Balad and prevent a military confrontation.
The Daraa Tribal Council and members of the Central Committee met with a number of government forces’ officers in the presence of the Russian Military Police.
It was agreed to hand over a limited number of weapons carried by the people of Daraa, which had previously appeared in tribal disputes in the neighborhood, and to allow a number of young people from Daraa al-Balad neighborhoods to join the security branches and register their weapons with the staff of the Military Security branch without handing them over to those branches.
The agreement also included the deployment of government forces’ checkpoints on three points, two in Daraa al-Balad and one in the al-Sad Road neighborhood, in exchange for lifting the imposed siege.
The security committee of the government forces had informed the Daraa Tribal Council that starting from 12 p.m. on Saturday, the siege would be completely imposed on the neighborhoods of Daraa al-Balad.
Sheikh Faisal Abazid, a member of the Central Committee and one of the notables of Daraa al-Balad neighborhood, said during the Friday sermon, “this war will not only be in Daraa al-Balad; whenever a bullet is fired against Daraa al-Balad, others will be fired throughout Houran, and all the people of Daraa will not stand idly by as they have sent their messages to the Assad regime regarding this.”
The siege of the government forces on the neighborhoods of Daraa came against the backdrop of the refusal of the Central Committee in Daraa, which is responsible for the negotiations with the Russians and the government, of the request of Russian officer of Chechen origin Assad Allah to hand over individual weapons in Daraa al-Balad in exchange for the removal of local factions linked to military security from the neighborhoods of Manshiyya, Sajna and Old Customs.
The government forces kept only one road open from the side of the Sajna neighborhood, but many military checkpoints spread there. They belong to local factions working for the Military Security, led by Mustafa al-Masalma, known as al-Kassem, who collaborates with government forces in the siege of Daraa al-Balad, according to the Daraa 24 website.