Clashes leave 15 dead in southern Syria

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - At least 15 people, including security personnel, civilians, and armed militants, were killed in violent clashes between government forces and armed groups in Syria’s southern Daraa province on Tuesday, the governor’s office said on Thursday.

The clashes erupted in the city of al-Sanamayn, north of Daraa city, when "armed groups outside the law" engaged in firefights with security forces, resulting in "several injuries and deaths on both sides, in addition to injuries among civilians," the governor’s office said in a statement.

Government forces responded by deploying multiple checkpoints across the city. One checkpoint came under "direct gunfire that resulted in the injury of an internal security member," prompting reinforcements from the defense ministry to arrive the next morning, according to the statement

The ensuing clashes left at least nine militants, four members of the security forces, and two civilians dead. A total of 27 people were injured, and a further 60 were taken in for investigation.

Daraa, the birthplace of the 2011 Syrian uprising against toppled dictator Bashar al-Assad, was recaptured by government forces in 2018, but violence and instability have reigned in the province.

The governor’s office accused some of the militants of being affiliated with the Islamic State (ISIS).

ISIS rose to power in 2014, seizing large swathes of Iraqi and Syrian territory in a brazen offensive and declaring a so-called “caliphate.” The group was territorially defeated in Iraq in 2017 and in Syria in 2019. It has sought to take advantage of increased instability in Syria since the Islamist Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) led a rebel offensive that overthrew Assad in December.