Attacks against members and officers of the Syrian regime, as well as suspected collaborators with Hezbollah, have increased in the Quneitra province, near the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, and the southern Daraa province.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Monday that a new assassination took place in Daraa. Riders on a motorcycle gunned down a member of the regime forces in the city of Ibtta in the Daraa countryside.
Since January, Daraa has witnessed 411 attacks that led to the killing of 347 people, including 166 civilians – among them four women and six children - and 142 regime forces or collaborators. Twenty-three former fighters, four former ISIS members, eight unidentified people and four members of the Fifth Brigade and pro-Russia fighters were also targeted.
Assassinations in Quneitra often target people accused of collaborating the Iran-backed Lebanese Hezbollah party.
The attacks have taken place in spite of assurances from Russia to neighboring countries that it was keeping Iran and Hezbollah’s forces out of southern Syria.
On Saturday, an attack targeted a military vehicle of the military security agency in the Quneitra countryside. Security forces members, including one accused of collaborating with Hezbollah, were wounded in the attack.
On Friday, a local faction commander survived an assassination attempt in Quneitra. He has been accused of cooperating with Hezbollah.
Member of the opposition negotiations committee, Dr. Ibrahim al-Jebawi told Asharq Al-Awsat that Hezbollah was still present in areas close to the Golan border.
It is still keeping up with its “farce” that it is a resistance movement with the aim of garnering popular support and to force Israel to accept the presence of Iranian factions in the area, he added.
The factions are seeking to change the demographics of the region, he went on to say.
Moreover, he said the presence of Iran and its proxies in the area is an “open secret”.
The members of the factions have however, been incorporated with the regime forces and Hezbollah fighters have taken up wearing regime uniforms to hide their presence, he revealed.
They have also even been granted military identification cards by the regime.
Russia is fully aware of this even though it announces from time to time that it had struck positions close to the Syrian border, stressed Jebawi.
