Escalation Renewed in Southern Syria and Security Deterioration Worsens

The escalation has resumed in Daraa, southern Syria, as local armed groups have blocked main roads and besieged government forces’ checkpoints, leading to a curfew amidst fears of clashes between the armed groups and government forces.

This occurs amid a security deterioration in Daraa Governorate, which resulted in the death of two women and the injury of two children and another person from the same family while trying to escape in their car from a gang of highway robbers chasing them on the Daraa-Damascus International Highway on Friday. The car veered off the road and overturned.

The “Horan Free League” website reported that local groups spread on Saturday morning in the city of Jasem, northern Daraa, and blocked main roads in protest of the government forces’ arrest of a young man from the city a week ago, with demands for his release. The local groups also besieged government checkpoints and military barracks in the area.

The roads “Jasem-Inkhil” and “Jasem-Namr” were also closed as part of the escalation against government forces, which have been given a week by the local groups to release the detained young man, threatening further escalation if he is not released.

The “Syrian Observatory for Human Rights” stated that after the deadline given by the local groups to the regime forces in Daraa expired, “the city witnessed a significant security alert and military deployment” and threats from the groups before attacking the government forces, which took precautionary measures to repel any attack on their sites.

On August 25, Damascus security services arrested a young man from the city of Jasem, northern Daraa, at a checkpoint near Aleppo city without knowing the charges against him, and he was taken to a security branch, according to the “Observatory.” An elderly woman (75 years old) from Jasem was also arrested on August 28 while returning from northern Syria at the Ramouseh checkpoint in Aleppo city without knowing the charges against her.

Local sources in Daraa said a curfew was in place on Saturday in Daraa, with local armed groups warning residents to avoid moving around the city as the possibility of clashes with government forces increased.

According to sources, the arrests by government forces and the escalation against them have become almost systematic between the two sides to achieve each other’s demands at the expense of civilian safety and security, as the sources put it.

In a related context, media sources reported that the family of a detainee from the village of Al-Madoura, northeastern Daraa, received his body from government authorities after a year and a half of his detention at a government checkpoint east of the Damascus-Amman International Highway. The family of Al-Akhras from the town of Ghabagheb, northern Daraa, also received their son’s body on August 6, less than a year after his arrest. Both detainees were reportedly held in the Saydnaya Military Prison.

From the time the regime took control of the governorate in July 2018 until the end of July 2024, the Horan Free League’s Violations Documentation Office recorded 135 deaths under torture of Daraa residents in regime detention centers.