In Daraa governorate, the rhythm of assassinations by unknown gunmen increased, with the attacks focusing on former opposition factions’ leaders.  

In the area, numerous assassinations of factions’ leaders, who consented to the “settlement deals”, were recorded, as of last September, where the agreement was sealed by the Syrian regime and the opposition under a Russian auspice.

With the cards being mixed, the entities in control of the area varying, including “4th Division”, “5th Legion”, the Russian police and “Hezbollah”-affiliated formations, and weapons yet being held by certain local factions, it is difficult to name the perpetrators of these assassinations.

The Syrian regime refrains from commenting on these attacks, for the official media outlets are all focused on the return of services and security to the area months after the regime took it over, within a tightened security grip, through which it attempts to detain the people it is prosecuting, based on lawsuits, and call on those required to perform mandatory military service.

In Whose Interest?

The former Bâtonnier in Daraa governorate, Sulaiman Karfan, believes that Iran and its military arm, represented by the Lebanese “Hezbollah”, are responsible for the assassinations the governorate is witnessing, for the target personalities were all at odds with the Iranian expansion in the area.

In an interview with Enab Baladi, he said: “In cooperation with Iranians, the regime is seeking to annihilate the real revolutionaries and empty the area of those who refuse the Iranian project.” He added that the latest assassinations targeted leader Ibrahim al-Ghazlan and Shiekh Alaa al-Zoubani “[who are] among those who refused Daraa’s young men joining the ranks of [Hezbollah] the most.”

Lawyer al-Karfan is concerned over the intensification of assassinations in the upcoming phase, as to cover all those opposing the hegemony of the regime and its allies in the area after it has defined the opposers of its plan and retightened its security clasp.

“The regime aims to eliminate all those who pose a danger to it, and all the people who would surround them,” he added.

These assassinations are actually linked to the power that the security branches possess in the governorate and the competition in expressing loyalty either to Russia or Iran, not to mention the media incitement on the part of the regime-affiliated media tools that is directed at the opposition and its incubator, after the reimage coerced it into the settlement deal and kept it under its reign.