The Douma City Council in rural Damascus confirmed the absence of a government plan to fill the tunnels in Eastern Ghouta, more than six years after the Syrian regime took control of the area.
Douma City Council Chairman Hisham al-Mamma told the local Al-Watan newspaper today, Monday, September 16, that one of the issues in Douma is the residents’ suffering from the abundance of tunnels extending throughout the city. These tunnels could pose a danger to inhabited residential buildings due to their large size and depths ranging between 6 and 15 meters, width between 3 and 5 meters, with many tunnels allowing car passage, along with individual tunnels.
Al-Mamma pointed to the exacerbation of the issue due to the lack of a government plan to fill and address these tunnels, restricting the work to what the local community is doing with their own resources. This includes currently filling tunnels under government buildings, such as the National Hospital, the Palace of Justice, the Palace of Culture, and the tunnel opposite the Scientific Research Center.
He explained that all filling work is done with concrete after ensuring the structural safety of the buildings, under the supervision of Douma City Council and relevant authorities, mainly the Ministry of Defense.
The Douma Council Chairman spoke about several projects being implemented through international organizations, including the National Hospital project, which the World Health Organization (WHO) is working on rehabilitating and equipping a part of the hospital at a cost of about 70 billion Syrian pounds, stating that it will be operational before the end of this year after the local community filled the tunnels underneath the hospital.
Confusion and procrastination
Despite more than six years passing since the regime took control of Eastern Ghouta, the regime’s government is still unsure how to deal with the tunnels dug by opposition factions during their control of the area.
Shortly after the regime took control of Ghouta, the government held a meeting dedicated to reconstructing Eastern Ghouta and decided to develop a vision for utilizing each tunnel optimally.
However, after more than a year, specifically in July 2019, the regime government retreated from investing in Ghouta’s tunnels. The Minister of Public Works and Housing, Suhail Abdul Latif, stated that a series of works had been organized to fill these tunnels.
The regime government continued to be confused about how to deal with the tunnels. In February 2024, the Chairman of Douma City Council told the local Athr Press website that filling all the tunnels in the city requires a long time and a budget larger than that of the Rif Dimashq governorate. He clarified that the tunnel in the al-Hamaira area in Douma was partially filled and that the filling would be completed fully in stages according to available resources.
The head of the regime, Bashar al-Assad, and his wife visited one of the tunnels dug by opposition factions in the Jobar neighborhood in mid-August 2018, four months after the regime’s forces fully took control of Ghouta.
However, photos published on the Presidency’s Facebook page at the time showed that some loyalist artists had carved shapes on the walls of one of the military tunnels in Jobar, indicating that the regime did not intend to demolish those tunnels but was thinking of utilizing them.
A plan to loot residents
The regime tried to exploit the existence of tunnels in Eastern Ghouta and its surroundings to loot Syrians’ properties, as confirmed by an investigation conducted by the Sawt al-Asima (Damascus Voice) website in March 2022. The investigation mentioned that the regime had demolished dozens of homes in a vital area in al-Qaboun, overlooking the international highway and surrounded by military barracks, under the pretext of removing tunnels and unexploded ordnance left by opposition factions.
Sawt al-Asima mentioned that nearly half of the al-Qaboun neighborhood was demolished after the battles ended in 2017, including high-rise buildings such as the al-Aboud building and the Waqf building, which are considered notable landmarks known to the neighborhood residents.
The regime attempted to legitimize the demolition operations it carried out in al-Qaboun and Harasta under the pretext of the presence of tunnels by issuing Decree No. 237 on September 14, 2021, which stipulated the establishment of zoning areas at the northern entrance of Damascus (al-Qaboun and Harasta).
Consulting engineer Mazhar Sharbaji, speaking to Enab Baladi in a previous interview, said that the regime claims that tunnels pose a danger to civilians to demolish their homes, even though tunnels do not necessarily affect the houses above them. Engineers have criteria to determine the extent to which buildings are affected by the presence of these tunnels and whether cracks have appeared in them.
Sharbaji talked about several factors that can be relied upon to confirm whether tunnels pose a danger to buildings or not. The primary factor is the type of soil. If the soil is rocky or cohesive clay, it cannot affect the buildings above it. Here, a soil analysis can be conducted to check its strength and cohesion.
The second factor is the depth of the tunnel. Some tunnels could be deeply underground and thus cannot cause any harm to buildings. The third factor is the shape of the tunnel. If it is arched, the load is distributed to the tunnel’s sides, making it sturdier than a rectangular tunnel, which can collapse and affect buildings above if not reinforced with sturdy iron supports during construction by the factions.
Sharbaji added that if it is found that tunnels might pose a danger, there is no need to demolish the buildings above them, as the regime did in some areas. Instead, those tunnels can be addressed and their dangers mitigated by filling them with stone materials mixed with concrete composites. It is not necessary to completely demolish tunnels, noting that this procedure should be supervised by the Engineers Syndicate, not by military and security entities.
Five tunnels connecting Ghouta to Damascus
The tunnel-digging experience began at the end of 2013 when the Fajr al-Umma (Dawn of the Nation) brigade dug a tunnel about 750 meters long, connecting Harasta and al-Qaboun orchards. It passed under the Damascus-Homs international highway, and the faction completed digging the tunnel by mid-2014, making it the first tunnel in Ghouta, which contributed to supplying the besieged area with weapons, food, and goods.
The second Ghouta tunnel was dug by another faction called Jaysh al-Umma (Army of the Nation) at the beginning of 2015. This tunnel paralleled the first one, connecting Harasta to the western side of the highway. When the tunnel was nearing completion, Jaysh al-Islam (Army of Islam) in Douma tried to take control, but the Fajr al-Umma brigade later managed the tunnel since it fell within their control area in Harasta, giving the faction two tunnels in Ghouta.
Facing this reality, other prominent factions in Ghouta started digging their tunnels. In May 2015, Faylaq al-Rahman (Rahman Legion) dug a tunnel starting from Arbien to the Electricity Company in al-Qaboun, passing under the Air Intelligence building, with a length of about 2.5 kilometers. This tunnel was designated for cars and pedestrians, managed by the Al-Rahma organization, and used by Faylaq al-Rahman to bring in food supplies from Damascus while smuggling weapons from Daraa to Barzeh, then to Ghouta.
Jabhat al-Nusra (al-Nusra Front) also dug its special tunnel, connecting Arbin to al-Ba’ala neighborhood in al-Qaboun, with a length of 1,800 meters, which opened in September 2015 and was named “The Light Tunnel,” designated for pedestrians while Faylaq al-Rahman later utilized this tunnel.
Jaysh al-Islam also dug a large tunnel for its use, starting in June 2015, connecting Zamalka to al-Qaboun, with another branch connecting Arbin to al-Qaboun. This tunnel was 3 kilometers long, and vehicles and BMP carriers could pass through it.
The Ahrar al-Sham movement also tried to dig a tunnel for cars, continuing its excavation until early 2017, but the deteriorating situation in al-Qaboun prevented the excavation’s completion.
In addition to these main tunnels, there are small subsidiary tunnels, some military on the front lines such as those in Ain Tarma, Zamalka, and Jobar, while others serve as civilian shelters connecting basements, prevalent in areas away from the front lines such as tunnels in Saqba, Hamouriyah, and Kafr Batna.