Assassinations Continue In Syria's Daraa With No Accountability

Security chaos continue in the province of Daraa (Syrian Observatory for Human Rights)
Security chaos continue in the province of Daraa (Syrian Observatory for Human Rights)
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Assassinations Continue In Syria's Daraa With No Accountability

Security chaos continue in the province of Daraa (Syrian Observatory for Human Rights)
Security chaos continue in the province of Daraa (Syrian Observatory for Human Rights)

Since early 2022, the province of Daraa in southern Syria has witnessed 117 different types of attacks that left 97 people dead, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights announced in a report on Thursday.

It said violence and insecurity chaos has dramatically escalated in the province, where 45 attacks, murders and incidents of security instability were reported in different places in Daraa only in March, leaving 39 deaths.

The last of these attacks took place in the northern countryside of Daraa, at midnight on Wednesday, when gunmen fired at the house of a person in the town of Mahajah, north of Daraa, seriously wounding his wife and son, who were transferred to the hospital.

Last Wednesday, a little boy and his baby brother died while their sister sustained cuts all over her body, after unknown gunmen had stormed their house in Al-Harrak town in the eastern countryside of Daraa and stabbed the three with sharp tools.

The attack was part of an armed robbery, as the mother of the three victims had received a remittance from her husband who lives abroad, the Observatory said.

Also this week, a 12 year-old child was accidently injured by members of the State Security, while he was with other children in Al-Maslakh area in Al-Hara city in Daraa countryside.

The Observatory said the rate of security incidents increased dramatically in the city of Daraa despite the so-called settlements and reconciliations conducted by the Damascus government in the city in 2018.

“Since early 2022, the number of attacks in the Daraa province has risen to 117, which left 97 people dead,” the London-based watchdog reported.

It said the victims involved 55 civilians, including a woman and two children, 32 regime military personnel and collaborators with security services, five individuals with settled-status, an ex-ISIS member, three unidentified people and a Russian-backed militiaman.



Assad Intelligence Archive Sparks Controversy in Iraq

Archive image of former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad shaking hands with Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani in Damascus (X) 
Archive image of former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad shaking hands with Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani in Damascus (X) 
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Assad Intelligence Archive Sparks Controversy in Iraq

Archive image of former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad shaking hands with Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani in Damascus (X) 
Archive image of former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad shaking hands with Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani in Damascus (X) 

A recent visit to Damascus by Izzat al-Shabandar, the special envoy of Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, has stirred political tensions in Baghdad amid speculation that he was handed sensitive intelligence files from the Syrian regime.

The trip, which included a meeting with Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa, has drawn criticism from within Iraq’s Coordination Framework, with some figures accusing the prime minister of using the visit to obtain the so-called “Assad intelligence archive” for political leverage ahead of parliamentary elections set for November.

The archive is believed to contain compromising material on Iraqi political and paramilitary figures, some of whom opposed Saddam Hussein’s regime or supported Bashar al-Assad during the Syrian civil war. Reports suggest that such information could be used in electoral rivalries.

Al-Sudani’s coalition, the Reconstruction and Development Alliance, has denied any such intentions. Coalition member Abdulhadi al-Saadaoui dismissed the rumors, stating: “The prime minister has no need for such tactics, especially given his broad popularity and growing support across Iraq.”

Since Assad’s fall in late 2024, speculation has grown around the fate of Syria’s intelligence files. Critics, including MP Youssef al-Kilabi, claim they could be exploited to damage opponents. Al-Kilabi alleged in a post on X that the archive had been handed to an Iraqi guest by former Syrian leader Abu Mohammad al-Julani.

Shabandar responded in a post of his own, saying he respected those who offered reasoned criticism, but dismissed what he called “electronic flies and stray dogs barking for their masters,” suggesting political motives behind the backlash.