A heterogeneous collective of local groups announced the formation of the so-called Southern Operations Command, an armed alliance that points to Damascus as “its main objective.”
The Syrian government on Friday lost control of the symbolic southern city of Turn on and most of the homonymous province, which It was the cradle of the country's uprising in 2011, a war monitor reported.
“Local factions have taken control of more areas of Daraa province, including Daraa city…They now control more than 90 percent of the province, as regime forces successively withdrew.", said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (OSDH).
In Daraa province (near the southern border with Jordan), only the Sanamayn area remains in government hands, he told the news agency. AFP Rami Abdel Rahman, who heads the Britain-based Observatory, which has a network of sources in Syria.
Meanwhile, the local news portal Daraa24 has published a statement by a heterogeneous group of local groups, such as the Eighth Brigade or the Central Committees, in the midst of an extremely conflictive scenario, announcing the constitution of the so-called Southern Operations Command, an armed alliance that points to Damascus as “its main target.”
The same media outlet has been reporting for hours on military withdrawals from their positions in the city and surrounding areas, but the Syrian Army has not yet commented on the matter.
In its statement, the Southern Command stresses that it has been created to protect the country's southern borders with Jordan and restore stability, while calling for desertion by Syrian government forces.
The new alliance also claims to have the support of local militias from Sueida, in the south of the country and another scene of conflict due to the uprising led by militias of the Druze minority against the Syrian government forces.
On the other hand, officials in the Syrian city of Sweida, including the governor of the province of the same name, abandoned buildings and administrative centres in the southern town on Friday, in the midst of a rebel offensive against the regime of President Bashar al-Assad, the NGO reported.
The governor, the police and prison chiefs “They abandoned their offices in Sweida, and local fighters took over some checkpoints in the province”, the OSDH noted.
Early on Friday, local factions seized the Nassib-Jaber border crossing with Jordan, according to the Observatory, and Jordan closed its side of the crossing, Interior Minister Mazen al-Faraya said.
Daraa province was the cradle of the 2011 uprising against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's rule but returned to government control in 2018 under a ceasefire deal brokered by Assad's ally Russia. It was a rebel stronghold at the height of the civil war in the early 2010s.
Former rebels who accepted the 2018 deal were allowed to keep their light weapons.
Daraa province has been plagued by unrest in recent years, with frequent attacks, gun battles and killings, some claimed by the Islamic State group.
(With information from AFP and Europa Press)
Source: INFOBAE
One of Biden's last blows to Putin in the Middle East before leaving the White House.
But with the establishment of a new government in Syria, its emergence could be complex as rebel groups could fight against each other, including Turkey, for important positions, and at the same time it could be dangerous for Israel, due to the anti-Semitic book and Biden's Santiago.
It is not yet known how Iran will end up.
May God bless, protect, strengthen and give wisdom to Israel and Mexico always….!!!