Local groups in the town of Ghadeer Al-Bustan in Quneitra countryside confronted Assad’s forces on Thursday as they attempted to raid the town and carry out an arrest campaign.
According to the Ahrar Houran local activist group, a joint patrol from Assad’s forces, belonging to the Military Security and State Security branches, tried to storm several homes in the town to arrest two residents.
The activist group reported that the security patrol consisted of three vehicles equipped with anti-aircraft guns, a military vehicle, and another car.
Upon reaching the western neighborhood of Ghadeer Al-Bustan, the patrol came under heavy gunfire from local groups, resulting in injuries among regime forces. The wounded were immediately transported to Mamdouh Abaza Hospital in northern Quneitra countryside.
The patrol retreated to the town center after the gunfire, eventually leaving the area entirely.
The group noted that these clashes come amid ongoing tensions in Quneitra countryside following several previous campaigns by regime forces, the most recent of which occurred on September 8 and led to the arrest of at least five individuals.
Mohammed Qaddah, a member of the Political Committee of the Syrian Opposition Coalition (SOC), said that the Assad regime understands only the language of force. He added that with ongoing arbitrary arrests, torture, enforced disappearances, and ransom demands for the release of detainees, the situation remains dire. As a result, residents view attacking regime military and security checkpoints and abducting regime officers as the most effective way to secure the release of their detained relatives.
Qaddah emphasized that this tactic is widely used by residents in southern Syria to free their detained and kidnapped loved ones from the regime and its allied militias, and to deter regime forces from continuing such practices.
(Source: SOC’s Media Department)
