New West Daraa Town Joins Russian Roadmap

The Russian military police in front of the settlement center in the town of al-Shajarah in the Yarmouk basin. (Daraa 24)
The Russian military police in front of the settlement center in the town of al-Shajarah in the Yarmouk basin. (Daraa 24)
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New West Daraa Town Joins Russian Roadmap

The Russian military police in front of the settlement center in the town of al-Shajarah in the Yarmouk basin. (Daraa 24)
The Russian military police in front of the settlement center in the town of al-Shajarah in the Yarmouk basin. (Daraa 24)

Syrian regime forces and Russian military forces have entered a new town, al-Shajarah, west of Daraa in southern Syria. They carried out inspections of homes and combed surrounding farmlands.

Officers from the Syrian army’s 16th Brigade were present at the inspections alongside local leaders and citizens.

A deal sponsored by Russia with the central negotiating committee in the Daraa governorate has allowed regime forces and Russian military police to enter the town and set up a center for settling the status of wanted civilians and military personnel in the area.

The center was established on Sunday with locals coming in from al-Shajarah and nearby villages and towns, including Abdeen, Beit Ara, Nafaa, al-Qusayr, Jamla, Abdin, and Koya, to settle their status and turn in their individual weapons in compliance with the signed agreement.

Now that the settlement center has been set up in al-Shajarah, the Russian police and the Syrian regime would have successfully implemented the new deal.

A few days ago, they had finished implementing the first part of the deal which included other towns such as Hayt, Jallin, Masaken Jalin, and Saham al-Golan in the Yarmouk basin region.

A member of the Central Negotiating Committee in the western countryside of Daraa told Asharq Al-Awsat that the security committee of the Syrian regime in Daraa informed it and dignitaries from the towns of Hayt and Saham al-Golan on Sunday to hand over more light and medium weapons from the area.

Regime forces argued that the number of weapons handed over in the first day of the establishment of the settlement center in the town of Saham al-Golan on Sunday was not enough.

On Monday, more light and medium weapons were delivered, according to some media outlets.

Syrian officers from the army’s 16th Brigade on Sunday and Monday toured the towns of Jallin, Saham al-Golan, and Hayt, accompanied by the Russian police. They left the towns without establishing stations or posting points in the area.



Syrians Recover Human Remains from Site Used by Hezbollah and Other Assad Allies

An aerial view taken with a drone shows members of the Syrian Civil Defense group, the White Helmets, loading human remains in body bags on a truck in the Sayyida Zeinab district of Damascus, Syria, 18 December 2024. (EPA)
An aerial view taken with a drone shows members of the Syrian Civil Defense group, the White Helmets, loading human remains in body bags on a truck in the Sayyida Zeinab district of Damascus, Syria, 18 December 2024. (EPA)
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Syrians Recover Human Remains from Site Used by Hezbollah and Other Assad Allies

An aerial view taken with a drone shows members of the Syrian Civil Defense group, the White Helmets, loading human remains in body bags on a truck in the Sayyida Zeinab district of Damascus, Syria, 18 December 2024. (EPA)
An aerial view taken with a drone shows members of the Syrian Civil Defense group, the White Helmets, loading human remains in body bags on a truck in the Sayyida Zeinab district of Damascus, Syria, 18 December 2024. (EPA)

The Syrian Civil Defense group, known as the White Helmets, uncovered at least 21 corpses as well as incomplete human remains on Wednesday in the Sayyida Zeinab suburb of the capital Damascus.

The discovery was made at a site previously used by Lebanon’s Hezbollah and Iran-backed Iraqi militias, both allies of deposed President Bashar al-Assad during the country’s civil war.

The site included a field kitchen, a drugstore and a morgue, according to Ammar al-Salmo, an official with the White Helmets, a volunteer organization that operated in areas that were controlled by the opposition.

Rescue teams in white hazmat suits searched the site, located not far from the revered shrine of Sayyida Zeinab. The remains were placed into black bags and loaded onto a truck as bystanders from the neighborhood looked on.

“Some (of the remains) are skeletons, others are incomplete, and there are bags of small bones. We cannot yet determine the number of victims,” al-Salmo said.

“Damascus has become a mass grave,” he said, pointing out the growing reports of war-related graves and burial sites in the capital and other places in Syria.

Iran and Hezbollah provided Assad’s government with military, financial and logistical support during the civil war.