Former opposition and military security-linked groups battle ‘IS cells’ in Daraa

PARIS — Clashes continued for a fourth day in Daraa city’s Tariq al-Sad district on Thursday between armed groups accused of belonging to the Islamic State (IS) and former opposition fighters from the provincial capital and western Daraa countryside, as well as the regime-affiliated 8th Brigade, led by former opposition commander Ahmed al-Awda.

The anti-IS operation in the city began on October 30, when military reinforcements consisting of former opposition fighters affiliated with the Central Committee in the western Daraa countryside and the 8th Brigade arrived at the provincial capital. 

Two days earlier, an individual known as Abu Hamza Sabina—nicknamed for the al-Sabina area south of Damascus—carried out a suicide bombing targeting the house of former opposition commander Ghassan Akram Abazid. The attack killed four civilians and injured others, including Abazid. 

These developments followed a series of similar operations in various cities in the southern province. In mid-October, former opposition fighters in Jassim city, in the northern Daraa countryside, conducted a similar military campaign against IS cells there. Around the same time, homes in the western Daraa town of al-Yadouda were searched for IS fighters. And this past July, local fighters in Tafas city conducted a campaign against possible IS cells there.

In each instance, the operations reportedly targeting IS in Daraa province began following threats made by the Syrian regime to storm areas of southern Syria to eliminate IS cells and “expel the strangers,” as it described them. 

What is happening in Daraa al-Balad?

After the October 28 suicide bombing in Daraa city, fingers of accusation pointed at Muayad al-Harfoush, also known as Abu Taaja, and Muhammad al-Masalma, also known as Hafu. Both men have been accused of pledging allegiance to IS, and lead a group of local fighters in the Tariq al-Sad district of Daraa city, including the suicide bomber who committed the attack. 

Harfoush responded to the accusations in a voice recording circulated on social media by local activists on October 29, in which he said the explosion took place while explosive devices were being manufactured at Abazid’s residence, and denied any role in the incident. 

Meanwile, two local sources from Daraa denied that bombs were being manufactured at the residence, and said the victims were civilians who had not participated in military activity.

In the voice recording, Harfoush described attacks on the armed group he leads by the 8th Brigade and local opposition groups as a “stain” on all those who agreed to take part. He denied any association with IS, and accused local factions of wanting him to submit to the regime, Iran and their allies. He insisted he would not leave Daraa al-Balad. 

Abu Muhammad, a community leader in Daraa city who spoke with Syria Direct on condition of anonymity for security reasons, claimed “Abu Taaja and Hafu were bought with money from IS, and they were practicing thuggish activities in Daraa al-Balad, forcing people to pay them bribes, and they also sheltered some IS fighters who fled from Jassim.” 

Abu Muhammad estimated the number of members of Abu Taaja and al-Hafu’s group at around 40 or 50 people. Local IS cells in the area are commanded by Yousef al-Nabulsi, also known as Abu Khaled, and a Tunisian individual. He said “the campaign is ongoing until they are completely eliminated.”

Al-Nabulsi comes from the western Daraa town of Tel Shehab, and was previously a commander in the Jaish Khaled bin al-Walid (JKW) faction, an IS affiliate in southern Syria. The faction fortified itself in the Yarmouk Basin area of southwestern Daraa before it was eliminated in a joint operation by the regime and settlement factions, with Russian air support, in summer 2018. 

The ongoing clashes in the Tariq al-Sad district of Daraa al-Balad, the former opposition stronghold in the provincial capital, have killed one child and injured a number of civilians. On Tuesday, local groups participating in the anti-IS operation evacuated a number of families from the district, while most residents remained trapped in their homes for a fourth day on Thursday.

By order of Louay al-Ali?

One local media source close to one local faction in western Daraa accused local groups in his area that belong, directly or indirectly, to the regime’s Military Intelligence Directorate, of going to Daraa city to take part in the ongoing operation “in response to Brigadier General Louay al-Ali [the head of the military security branch in southern Syria], under the pretext of besieging IS cells.”

The source, who asked not to be named for security reasons, believes that “Louay al-Ali is invoking the presence of these cells to eliminate all the elements and revolutionaries opposed to the regime.” He accused the groups participating in the attack of attempting to “cozy up to al-Ali for self-protection.” 

Along the same lines, one former opposition military official in Daraa suggested, also on condition of anonymity, that al-Ali “seeks to implement his agenda in the Houran [southern Syria] using IS cells, whose return to the province was facilitated by his regime.” He alleged that “some cells are moving at the command of al-Ali himself.” 

His reading of recent events in Daraa is that the military security head seeks to “make a change to the military map in some areas by increasing the [number of] military points belonging to military security, under the pretext of fighting IS” as well as extracting “additional conditions in favor of the regime in the settlement agreements” thereby “eliminating his opponents.” 

The former opposition military official based his reading on the nature of the groups that fought IS cells in Jassim in mid-October. They “are affiliated with military security, and today in Daraa al-Balad it’s the same thing—and the 8th Brigade switched its affiliation to military security about a year ago.” 

The 8th Brigade, commanded by former opposition Southern Front commander Ahmed al-Awda, was part of the Russian-backed 5th Corps until 2021, when Moscow stopped supporting the group and its affiliation was transferred to Military Intelligence Division 238 in Suwayda. 

A media source close to the 8th Brigade in the Daraa town of Busra al-Sham denied that the brigade’s participation in recent operations was at al-Ali’s orders. He said the 8th Brigade went to Daraa city out of “fear for the people of Daraa al-Balad against IS cells.” 

And although the 8th Brigade “belongs administratively to military security, it doesn’t take orders from it, and its decisions are internal and independent,” the media source told Syria Direct. He stressed that the faction’s participation in Jassim two weeks ago was also a decision made independently from military security or al-Ali. 

Taking a position of support for the local armed groups participating in actions against reported IS cells in Daraa al-Balad, notables and clans in the city issued a statement on October 30 in which they called on residents to “stay away” from IS cells, not to shelter them and to stand against them. 

In turn, Sheikh Faisal Abazid, a former member of the Central Committee in Daraa city—a local body formed after the 2018 settlement agreement with Damascus that negotiated with the regime and Russia before dissolving itself last summer—published a video responding to accusations that local groups and notables in the provincial capital were subordinate to or taking orders from al-Ali. 

Addressing “whoever accuses us of being agents and men of Louay al-Ali,” he said the military security head “is no cousin, friend or brother of ours. In the end, he is a pillar of the Assad regime.” He said the operation in Daraa city is against “a corrupt, criminal gang.” 

Abazid listed a number of accusations against IS cells, such as kidnapping, murder, extortion, drug trafficking and the recent bombing at the house of former commander Ghassan Abazid. 

IS active in Daraa? 

In mid-October, local groups in Jassim city—alongside members of the 8th Brigade and fighters from the western Daraa countryside, all from former opposition factions—launched a military campaign against those they called “IS cells” holed up in the al-Aaliya district on the city’s outskirts. 

At the time, the attacking groups were able to kill an IS commander in southern Syria, Abdulrahman al-Iraqi—nicknamed for his nationality—as well as other IS members by using landmines to blow up the house they were fortified in. 

This escalation came after reinforcements from the Syrian Army’s 9th Division came to the vicinity of Jassim on October 10 and Brigadier General al-Ali met with commanders and notables in the city to demand they remove those he called “strangers” from Jassim. 

Al-Ali repeated the same scenario in the town of al-Yadouda, west of Daraa, where “limited” regime military reinforcements as well as the Mustafa al-Musalma (al-Kasam) militia—which works in the interest of military security—arrived. The military security branch head held a similar meeting to the one in Jassim city, and demanded al-Yadouda leaders expel “the strangers,” too. 

The day after the meeting, and with the participation of local notables, fighters from al-Yadouda searched a number of houses to document the names of outsiders living in them in order to make sure there were no members of IS in the town. 

Following the collapse of IS affiliate JKW in southern Syria in 2018, “some small IS cells remained in the Houran,” the media source from the western Daraa countryside said. But “recently their numbers have doubled after the regime released a number of them [from prisons] and facilitated the entry of some from the Syrian desert to Daraa,” he said. 

Although there are few IS members in Daraa, “the regime moves them from one town to another to strike its opponents and take revenge on them,” the source said, a claim that Syria Direct could not independently verify. 

Rami al-Salkhadi, a reported IS member who was captured during the Jassim operation in mid-October, was filmed in a video circulated by activists at the time confessing to IS involvement in carrying out assassinations in favor of the regime and Iran that included their opponents in the area. His filmed statements echoed the media source’s claim, but cannot be confirmed as they were given in the context of a filmed confession after capture.

In the video, al-Salkhadi also said he had tracked the movements of some targets the regime intended to assassinate, and spoke about meeting with Brigadier General al-Ali.

Despite recent IS activity in Daraa, “it cannot be said that it has returned to the south, because its groups are limited and active in secret,” the former opposition military official said. He is concerned about the possibility al-Ali “could increase the number of IS cells and allow them to reach Daraa, to create an opportunity for the regime to enter some cities and towns that remain outside its control, such as Tafas, Daraa al-Balad, Jassim, Busra al-Sham and others.” 

The media source agreed, saying that using IS presence as a scapegoat in Daraa “has proved successful.” 

This report was originally published in Arabic and translated into English by Mateo Nelson.