IDLIB, Syria — On Jan. 25, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said it had monitored a spike in the death toll resulting from the clashes that took place in Daraa a day earlier, considered the heaviest since the Syrian regime took control of the southern governorate in 2018.
On Jan. 24, clashes broke out between forces of the Syrian regime’s elite 4th Division — affiliated with Maher al-Assad, the brother of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad — and Islamist fighters in western Daraa, resulting in the death of 11 members of the 4th Division.
The clashes erupted after the 4th Division launched an attack against Liwa Fajr al-Islam (Dawn of Islam Brigades) led by Khaldoun al-Zoubi, after the latter refused the 4th Division’s demands to hand over heavy weapons and leave to northern Syria. The 4th Division had set its demands following the bloody events in Tafas on Jan. 13, when violent fighting broke out between the Zoubi clan and the Kiwan clan, resulting in the deaths of four people from both sides. Another person was also killed by stray bullets.
The SOHR report added that Liwa Fajr al-Islam members captured three members of the regime forces on Jan. 14, attacked a checkpoint of the 4th Division north of Sahem el-Golan in the Daraa countryside, and seized a checkpoint that the 4th Division had erected on the Nafea-al-Shajara road within the Yarmouk Basin.
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