Daraa Governorate is one of the fourteen governorates (provinces) of Syria. It is situated in the south-west of the country and covers an area of 2594 km2. It is bordered by Jordan to the south, Quneitra Governorate and Golan Heights to the west, Rif Dimashq Governorate to the north and As-Suwayda Governorate to the east. The governorate has a population of 922,000. The capital is the city of Daraa.
The 4th Armoured Division was an elite formation of the Syrian Arab Army whose primary purpose was to defend Ba'athist Syria from internal and external threats. The division was considered one of the most combat-ready formations of the Syrian Arab Army. It played a key role in some battles of the Syrian Civil War.
The 2013 Daraa offensive was a campaign during the Syrian Civil War launched by the FSA in the Daraa Governorate to capture the strategic border area. The offensive began in early March 2013. During the campaign, rebel forces captured several bases and towns. The offensive was eventually halted following an Army counter-offensive in mid-April, which resulted in the recapture of a few towns and villages. After that, the rebels continued their advance by launching a counter-offensive of their own.
The Ba'ath Brigades, also known as the Ba'ath Battalions, were a volunteer militia made up of Syrian Ba'ath Party members, almost entirely of Sunni Muslims from Syria and many Arab countries, loyal to the Syrian Government of Bashar al-Assad.
The 2014 Daraa offensive was a campaign during the Syrian Civil War launched by rebel forces, including the Free Syrian Army and the Islamic Front and Al-Nusra Front, to push back government forces in the Daraa Governorate, Quneitra Governorate, and As-Suwayda Governorate, in southwestern Syria, and thus opening the road to Damascus.
The October Daraa offensive, code-named "wa al-Fajr wa Layali Asher", was a military operation launched by Syrian rebels during the Syrian civil war in Daraa Governorate, in an attempt to take control of Al-Harra and Al-Sanamayn. This operation came after the successful rebel offensive in Quneitra province, which resulted in the rebels seizing the Syrian-controlled side of the Golan and the capture of a number of towns, villages and hills in Quneitra and Daraa provinces.
The 2015 Southern Syria offensive, code-named "Operation Martyrs of Quneitra", was an offensive launched in southern Syria during the Syrian Civil War by the Syrian Arab Army, Hezbollah and Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps forces. Government forces also include Iranian sponsored Afghani Shi'ite volunteer militias. The name "Operation Martyrs of Quneitra" refers to the January 2015 Mazraat Amal incident, in which several high level Hezbollah and IRGC members were killed in an Israeli strike.
The Daraa and As-Suwayda offensive was launched in eastern Daraa Governorate during the Syrian Civil War, by the Southern Front of the Free Syrian Army and allied Islamic Front rebel group against government positions in and around the 52nd Mechanized Brigade base, which housed an infantry unit, an artillery battalion and a T-72 tank battalion. The offensive moved directly onto nearby al-Thula airbase in western As-Suwayda Governorate after the swift capture of Brigade 52. However, after initially managing to capture parts of the airbase, the rebels were forced to withdraw.
The Daraa Governorate campaign was a military campaign in the Syrian Civil War for the control of the southern Syrian Daraa Governorate (province) between the Syrian Armed Forces and the Syrian opposition, which ended with the capture of the province by the Southern Operations Room.
The 2018 Southern Syria offensive, code-named Operation Basalt, was a military operation launched by the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) and its allies against the rebels and ISIL in Southern Syria. The fighting began with a surprise attack on rebel-held areas in the eastern part of the Daraa Governorate in an attempt to fracture rebel-held lines and weaken morale, ahead of their offensive in the greater Southern Syria region.
Tell al-Ḥāra, formerly known as Ḥārith al-Jawlān or Jabal Ḥārith, is the highest point in the Daraa Governorate. During the Arab–Israeli conflict and the Syrian Civil War, it has served as a highly strategic military position because it overlooks wide areas of the Golan Heights and Hauran regions. The closest population center is the town of al-Hara, located at the hill's southeastern foot.
The March 2020 Daraa clashes was an armed conflict between rebel fighters aligned with the Free Syrian Army and Syrian government forces in the Daraa Governorate. Clashes began after the start of a government security operation against FSA insurgent cells in Al-Sanamayn and other areas in the Daraa governorate that have been active since 2018 after the defeat of rebel forces in the province. This crackdown led to actions of retaliation by rebels across the province that led to levels of fighting unseen on such a scale since the government offensive in 2018. The fighters involved in the attack are believed to be former rebel fighters that surrendered to the government in 2018, as well as former rebels that defected to the government, and had been working against the government from within.
The 2021 Daraa offensive was an offensive between rebel fighters and Syrian government forces in the Daraa Governorate, as part of the Daraa insurgency. The offensive saw heavy clashes throughout the governorate, particularly in the Daraa al-Balad neighborhood, which was besieged by government troops.
The following is a timeline of the Syrian civil war for 2023. Information about aggregated casualty counts is found in Casualties of the Syrian civil war.
On 27 November 2024, a coalition of Syrian revolutionary factions called the Military Operations Command led by Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and supported by allied Turkish-backed groups in the Syrian National Army (SNA) launched an offensive against the pro-government Syrian Arab Army (SAA) forces in Idlib, Aleppo and Hama Governorates in Syria. The operation was codenamed Deterrence of Aggression by HTS. This is the first time that opposition forces in the Syrian civil war launched a military offensive campaign since the March 2020 Idlib ceasefire.
The following is a timeline of the Syrian civil war from November 2024. Information about aggregated casualty counts is found in casualties of the Syrian civil war.
The Southern Operations Room, also known as SOR, is a Syrian rebel coalition consisting of various Syrian opposition groups that originally operated in the southern provinces of Daraa, Suwayda and Quneitra, though they have expanded to Damascus and Rif Dimashq.
On 7 December 2024, the Syrian opposition group known as the Southern Operations Room led forces that entered the Rif Dimashq region of Syria from the south, and those forces then came within 20 kilometres (12 mi) of the capital Damascus. The Syrian Army withdrew from multiple points in the outskirts. Concurrently with the advance towards Damascus, opposition militia Tahrir al-Sham and the Turkish-backed Syrian National Army in the north launched an offensive into Homs, while the Syrian Free Army advanced into the capital from the southeast. By 8 December 2024, rebel forces entered the city's Barzeh neighborhood. According to official state reports in Russian mass media and media footage, President Bashar al-Assad left Damascus by air to Moscow, where he was granted asylum, sealing the fall of his regime.
On 8 December 2024, Israel invaded the buffer zone between Syria and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, and carried out an aerial campaign targeting the Syrian Army's military capabilities, following the fall of the Assad regime.
Ahmad al-Awda is a Syrian military officer and former rebel leader who leads the Southern Operations Room. A leader of the rebel Youth of Sunna Forces between 2014 and 2018, al-Awda reconciled with the Assad regime following the 2018 Southern Syria offensive. With the backing of Russia, al-Awda was appointed the commander of the 8th Brigade of the Syrian Army's 5th Corps, a formation primarily consisting of reconciled rebels. He became an influential powerbroker in Daraa Governorate, taking orders from Russia rather than the authorities in Damascus, and became known as "Russia's man in Southern Syria".
Al-Jabal Brigade [5] 
Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham [6] 
Syrian Arab Republic 
Ahmad al-Awda 
Southern Front loyalists
Ex-rebels in reconciliation zones
