For the second day in a row, the process of “settlement of statuses” wanted by the Syrian regime continues in the town of Muzayrib in the western countryside of Daraa in southern Syria, while fears are emerging of a large-scale military operation that the Syrian regime and Russia are preparing in the northwest of the country, in light of the increasing pace of military escalation on their part with the aim of controlling villages and the towns of Jabal Al-Zawiya in the southern countryside of Idlib.

Activist Muhammad Al-Shalabi told Al-Araby Al-Jadeed that the regime forces and the Russian military police continued, today, Thursday, searches of houses in the town of Muzayrib in search of weapons and ammunition, in conjunction with the continuation of the “settlement” operations, which have so far included about 240 armed people. Local residents or civilians required for military service in the regime’s army, in implementation of the agreement reached, the day before yesterday, Tuesday, between the town’s notables and the regime’s security committee under Russian auspices, and entered into force on Wednesday morning.

According to the regime’s “SANA” news agency, dozens of townspeople handed over their weapons, including automatic rifles, shoulder-launched launchers, and ammunition boxes, while the status of more than 200 people, including armed dissidents and military defectors and those who had left military service, were settled on the first day. From the implementation of the Muzayrib town agreement. She added that the regime’s flag was raised today over the town of Muzayrib, after the regime forces deployed in the town.

In the same context, yesterday evening, Wednesday, the notables of the tribes of the city of Tafas in the countryside of Daraa met with representatives of the military and civilians, and everyone agreed to spare the city war, destruction and displacement of the city’s residents, and authorized the Central Committee and a number of city notables to conduct negotiations with the Syrian regime, to take guarantees that maintains the security and safety of the city and the safety of its people.

In addition, the Syrian regime forces repositioned themselves at the Al-Dawwar checkpoint in Masaken Jalin in the western countryside of Daraa, where they sent dozens of fighters and a number of heavy vehicles, after they withdrew from it last year, according to the “Ahrar Houran Gathering” website.

The Masaken Galen roundabout checkpoint is a linking point between the city of Tafas and the towns of the Yarmouk Basin area in the western Daraa governorate.

Yesterday, Wednesday, the regime forces lost five of their members as a result of detonating an explosive device in a military vehicle near the village of Al-Faqi’, north of Daraa.

On the other hand, the regime forces arrested two young men from the city of Jassem while they were going to work at the Al-Mafraza checkpoint between the city of Al-Hara and the town of Nimr, without knowing the reasons, according to the “Ahrar Houran Gathering.”

In As-Suwayda, the “Men of Dignity” movement began to lift the security cordon it had imposed on the town of Attil, with the aim of besieging the “Al-Falhout” militia affiliated with the Syrian regime’s intelligence, in order to facilitate the movement of civilians, and after a series of arrests carried out by the movement against those it called “accused of crimes and violations” in separate areas. from Sweida.

According to the local “Suwayda 24” network, several initiatives by the Sheikh of Akl and the dignitaries of As-Suwayda permeated the tensions, yesterday, Wednesday, with the aim of preventing any internal fighting between the local factions, even though the movement came under fire from elements affiliated with the regime’s intelligence during the arrest and alert campaigns.

Escalation in Idlib

In the northwest of the country, there are fears of a large-scale military operation that the Syrian regime and Russia are preparing to take over the Jabal al-Zawiya area in the southern countryside of Idlib.

The pro-regime Al-Watan newspaper reported that the Syrian Arab Army has completed its preparations to launch a possible military operation in the southern countryside of Idlib and the western countryside of Hama to expel the militants backed by the Turkish regime, in the event that its military leadership takes the decision of war to restore the occupied area, in parallel with meetings between the President’s envoy US National Security Council Middle East official Brett McGurk, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Fryshnin, and Presidential Envoy Alexander Lavrentiev.

According to the newspaper, the operation, if carried out, will be with Russian air support, and aims to push the opposition militants to the north of the international highway “M4” linking Aleppo governorate and the Syrian coast, “in preparation for its opening to traffic and transit according to Russian-American understandings whose broad lines will be outlined by the scheduled meeting between the envoys of the two presidents.” Vladimir Putin and Joe Biden in Geneva.

For its part, the “Syrian Network for Human Rights” stated, in a report, today, Thursday, that the Russian forces and the Syrian regime forces “committed violations that constitute war crimes during illegal attacks on and around Jabal al-Zawiya,” noting that nearly 61 civilians were killed, 33 Of them, at the hands of Russian forces, including 20 children, and targeting 13 vital facilities from June to September 2021.

The report said that it “observed a military escalation by the Syrian-Russian alliance forces, with the beginning of last June 2021, targeting the Jabal al-Zawiya area with attacks on civilian areas, which led to civilian casualties and significant material damage to vital facilities and facilities, explaining that this The escalation came after a period of relative calm that lasted for months, against the backdrop of the Turkish-Russian ceasefire agreement concluded in March 2020.

The report talked about the importance of the Jabal al-Zawiya area and listed the reality of its control by the parties to the conflict, and presented the most prominent points that distinguished the last military campaign since the beginning of June 2021 from the previous campaigns, where the extensive use of reconnaissance aircraft and ammunition of special quality in terms of accuracy of hitting the target and great destruction The target place is directed through a laser circuit, in addition to the intense missile bombardment. This campaign was also marked, according to the report, by the use of munitions that had not been previously used in the Syrian conflict, with an unprecedented intensity.