Three Syrian Police Officers Killed In Suspected HTS Attack In Daraa
On March 9, three Syrian police officers were killed when their patrol was ambushed on the highway between the Syrian capital, Damascus, and the southern governorate of Daraa.
The patrol was attacked by militants riding motorcycles near the town of Khirbet Ghazaleh in the northern Daraa countryside. Not all militants managed to flee the scene. One of them was killed by return fire from the police officers.
The slain militant was identified by Syrian activists as Imran Suleiman al-Rajeh, who was also known as “Abu Al-Haija.” Al-Rajeh, originally from the town of Hait in the western countryside of Daraa, was reportedly a member of al-Qaeda-affiliated Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS).
Al-Rajeh’s past suggests that HTS was behind the attack on the police officers. The terrorist group maintained a small presence in Daraa before the 2018 Syrian military operation and reconciliation process that saw the entire governorate return to government control. Now, the group is mainly based in the northwestern Greater Idlib region.
HTS has not claimed responsibility for any attack in Daraa since ending its public presence there. However, the terrorist group is known to be still active in the governorate, especially in the western countryside.
The group escalated attacks against government forces around Greater Idlib in the last few months, thus it is possible that it had ordered its cells in Daraa to do the same.
Another possible scenario is that al-Rajeh was one of HTS members in Daraa who defected after 2018 and joined ISIS. The terrorist group was blamed for several recent attacks against government forces and local fighters in the government, including a series of bombing that killed or wounded several people in Daraa city in recent weeks.
All in all, the situation in Daraa remains unstable. The threat posed by terrorist groups like HTS and ISIS is still high. Syrian government forces are yet to react.
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