At least 42 former rebel leaders killed in Daraa since reconciliation deal brokered in 2018: monitoring

More than 42 former leaders of armed opposition factions have been killed in Daraa, since the “settlement” agreement that led to the regime regaining control over the region in August 2018.

The Daraa Martyrs Documentation Office (DMDO) said that since regime forces took control, around 76 operations and assassination attempts against former leaders of opposition factions resulted in the death of 42 former leaders, through direct shooting, explosives, or execution after kidnapping.

The office was able to pin two operations on regime forces, while ISIS claimed one of the killings with 39 remain with no known perpetrator.

According to the Office, “13 of the killed former leaders had joined the regime's military forces and 9 the security branches: 5 to the Military Security Branch, 2 to the Air Force Intelligence Branch, 2 to the State Security Branch. 16 of them had not joined any military or security bodies, while some were active in the central committees in Daraa.”

The DMDO documented 34 other assassination attempts that left 20 wounded, 14 of whom survived the attempts on their lives.

The office documents this type of incidents within a criminal database, separate from the martyrs database and the Crimes Department database from before regime forces took control of Daraa.