What was behind Daraa’s rapid fall, and did HTS participate?

PARIS — Within hours of local armed groups mobilizing against regime forces in Daraa on Friday, the newly formed Southern Operations Room announced it controlled all of the southern province. 

The following day, these forces pushed north for the capital Damascus, seizing its southern suburbs and drawing attention from Operation Deterring Aggression, a simultaneous opposition offensive driving south into the key city of Homs

The Syrian regime’s rapid and sudden collapse in Daraa coincided with similar losses across the country, including in neighboring Suwayda province, where local factions also declared its expulsion on Friday. 

Friday’s developments in southern Syria came one day after the Military Operations Department—an opposition operations room led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS)—announced it controlled Hama province on December 5. In the preceding days, HTS-led forces had captured Aleppo province and parts of Idlib that had been outside its control.  

A central square in the northern Daraa city of Inkhil sits mostly empty, its shops closed on Saturday after opposition forces seized control of the southern province from Syrian regime forces, 7/12/2024 (Ahmad al-Shalabi/Syria Direct)

What happened in Daraa?

On Friday morning, Syrian regime forces controlled all of southern Syria, including Daraa. That began to change when small military groups based in the northern Daraa cities of Inkhil and Jassim, as well as al-Karak al-Sharqi in the eastern countryside, mobilized to expel nearby military checkpoints. 

The swift withdrawal of regime forces from these three areas—as well as the advance of factions based in northwestern Syria to the outskirts of Homs after capturing Hama city the previous day—spurred the rest of Daraa’s local military groups into action. They mobilized and attacked checkpoints and headquarters, forcing regime forces to withdraw. 

As this “popular uprising and mobilization” expanded, some of Daraa’s local armed groups announced the formation of a Southern Operations Room, launching a battle they called “Breaking the Chains” to “liberate” the province. 

In parallel, local factions in neighboring Suwayda province began their own military operation to expel regime forces from the Druze-majority province, seizing the Suwayda Central Prison and releasing prisoners inside. 

“We did not expect what happened in Daraa. We are still in shock at the speed and simplicity,” Muhammad al-Rifai, an activist in the eastern Daraa countryside, told Syria Direct. “Personnel at most checkpoints and military positions on the edges of cities left their weapons and fled.” 

Colonel Nassim Abu Ara, the  military spokesperson for the Southern Operations Room, attributed the swift collapse of regime forces to “the expansion of points of engagement and attack from several areas in Daraa province, quickly taking control of many military positions and checkpoints.” This caused “a collapse in morale,” he told Syria Direct. 

“Daraa was liberated by its sons, and the revolutionary factions present here, with only our remaining weapons,” Abu Ara said. Continuing their advance northward, Daraa’s forces were “coordinating with operations rooms in Quneitra and Suwayda,” he added. 

Because “the popular uprising and mobilization was what drove the battle and increased its pace, it had to be organized through an operations room,” one opposition military commander in the northern Daraa countryside told Syria Direct. 

Coordinating within an operations room was crucial, activist al-Rifai said, because Daraa residents—including himself—“rose up spontaneously and were driven by their emotions after watching scenes of liberation and victories in northern Syria.” 

A tank left behind by regime forces when they withdrew from the 15th Brigade in the north of Syria’s southern Daraa province, 7/12/2024 (Ahmad al-Shalabi/Syria Direct)

Was HTS involved?

Given that HTS is the largest force participating in Operation Deterring Aggression, questions arose following the expulsion of regime forces from Daraa province on Friday about what—if any—role the Idlib-based group played. 

Notably, small groups claiming affiliation with HTS formed in Daraa province this past May, as Syria Direct reported at the time. 

Abu Shahin (a pseudonym), the commander of one HTS-affiliated group in the northern Daraa countryside, told Syria Direct on Saturday that his group did participate in Friday’s operations to take control of the province.

“We have been waiting many months for the brothers in the north to start the battle,” Abu Shahin said, asking not to be identified for security reasons. “We were coordinating with them in advance, waiting for the appropriate time to come out in all of the Houran,” he added.

When HTS-led forces arrived at the outskirts of Homs, “it was the appropriate time to move,” Abu Shahin said. HTS-affiliated groups had prepared “covertly, not drawing attention” to put together “small, clandestine groups in every city and town with personal light weapons,” he asserted.

Syria Direct could not determine the size or extent of HTS-affiliated groups’ presence in southern Syria. 

Abu Shahin denied that any weapons have entered southern Syria from HTS’ stronghold in the north. “The roads were cut,” and “all the groups that participated are from the Houran,” he said. Each group’s task was to “liberate their city and then support other groups if necessary,” he added. 

With Daraa now outside regime control, local groups’ “jobs and tasks” continue, Abu Shahin added: “protecting government institutions and public facilities and controlling security to prevent lawlessness, which is the responsibility of every group in its city.” He stressed “HTS in Daraa is part of the local revolutionary movement.” 

“We are neither gangs nor terrorists, we are fighters from this country’s sons,” he said. “Some of us are doctors and engineers. Our goal is to remove the regime, lift injustice from civilians and release detainees.” Abu Shahin denied the presence of any external HTS forces or personnel in Daraa. 

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