The head of the Military Security branch in Daraa, Brigadier General Louay al-Ali, threatened the notables of the town of Mahja in northern Daraa in his meeting with them, with bombing the town if the local factions refuse to hand over their weapons and agree to a new security settlement.

A reporter from Enab Baladi in Daraa reported that the town’s notables held a meeting with Brigadier General Louay al-Ali on Wednesday, August 21, where they received threats if they refused to conduct a new settlement in the town.

The meeting was repeated today, Thursday, and included fighters from local factions and notables from the town, where the factions informed them of their rejection of al-Ali’s demands.

First Lieutenant Naji al-Majareesh, a defector from the regime’s forces who hails from Daraa province and resides in Jordan, told Enab Baladi that Louay al-Ali informed the notables that he would turn the town of Mahja into a “second Gaza,” according to information he said he obtained from the town’s residents.

A leader in a military faction in the town, who requested anonymity for security reasons, told Enab Baladi that Louay al-Ali threatened the notables of Mahja by turning the town into a “second Gaza,” threatening to bombard and siege it, similar to what happens in the Gaza Strip in occupied Palestine.

He added that al-Ali offered the notables to disarm the fighters and popular committees affiliated with the Military Security and State Security branches in the area, but the leader doubted al-Ali’s credibility regarding disarming his affiliated groups.

He pointed out that the local factions unanimously decided not to hand over the weapons regardless of the threats, and called on Daraa fighters and local factions to intervene immediately to pressure the regime and consider the Mahja battle as the battle of all villages and towns in Daraa.

Roots of the problem

Clashes erupted on August 19 between fighters in the town and groups affiliated with the Syrian regime under the name “popular committees,” resulting in fatalities on both sides and injuries among civilians.

The presence of the popular committees, which are auxiliary military forces to the regime, is concentrated in the western neighborhood of the town of Mahja, while the presence of local factions is concentrated in the eastern neighborhood of the town.

The leader who spoke to Enab Baladi said the regime supported these groups by providing them with ammunition and personnel, and allowed them to use a military point known as Tel Mekdad, and also participated in transporting the wounded to the Izraa government hospital.

Mahja is a Syrian town administratively affiliated with the Izraa area in Daraa province. It is 45 kilometers northeast of the center of Daraa province and 65 kilometers south of Damascus, with a population of about 23,000 inhabitants.

On August 14, local militants targeted a State Security checkpoint in Mahja, and threatened to storm it if the regime forces did not release a young man from the town, who was arrested at the Mankat al-Hatab checkpoint north of Daraa.

A few days earlier, the State Security checkpoint was targeted with an RPG shell after the local fighters’ deadline for the regime forces to release two detainees from the town expired. The regime responded to the fighters’ demands and released the detainees.

In February, the regime forces attempted to storm Mahja, but were forced to retreat after clashes with local factions.

In December 2023, an explosive device detonated near a Russian military police convoy near Mahja Bridge, prompting the regime to accuse the fighters of the town for the attack, but no moves resulted from the incident in the area.

A repeated scenario

The regime’s moves through Military Security are not new to Daraa province. Previously, notables from the city of Jasim in the northern part of the province met with the head of the Military Security branch in the province, Louay al-Ali, which included demands to hand over weapons owned by the local factions in Daraa and conduct a new settlement for wanted individuals.

According to leadership sources in the local factions in Jasim who spoke to Enab Baladi at the time, al-Ali’s demands for disarming faced outright rejection. Armed factions in other cities and towns in Daraa province also rejected al-Ali’s offer to hand over weapons, including the Eighth Brigade, which is the largest military faction in Daraa and is administratively affiliated with Military Security.

For its part, the local Horan Free League reported that Louay al-Ali asked the Jasim notables to coordinate with the Eighth Brigade leadership to hand over the weapons that the Eighth Brigade had confiscated last July after internal fighting between the city’s factions.

Ali also demanded, according to Horan Free League, to expel those he described as “strangers” from the city as soon as possible, referring to residents who do not originate from the city.

Similar scenarios have occurred in various cities like Daraa al-Balad, Tafas, Nawa, and others.

Local factions in Daraa maintain light and medium weapons from the remnants of opposition factions, which were forced to surrender their heavy weapons to the regime after it took over the province in July 2018 with Russian aerial support, Iranian ground support, and a Jordanian-Russian-American understanding.